Search results for 'tag:Verbs tag:Contractions' matching tags 'Verbs' and 'Contractions'

Re: don't I receive

Yankee — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:35:16 GMT

Yoong Liat
After pondering over the sentences, I feel that the short form ( don't ) cannot be used in a sentence in which inversion.is required.

Hi YL
Here is one last try:

"Don't I receive" is a standard way to write the contracted form of the inversion "do I not receive".
In other words:
- don't I receive = do I not receive
- don't I receive is a subject-verb inversion ==> The uninverted, uncontracted form is "I do not receive"

I would agree that using the contraction is less formal. However, that does not mean that the contraction cannot be used.

Re: How to pronounce often?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:46:01 GMT

Dear Howard Leigh Ph.D., If we are going to get into silly mudslinging battles over the word "often" and claiming illigitimacy of posts due to lack of name, qualifications, and misspellings then I suggest that you start with the very word misspelling which contains two of the letter "s". That is, of course, unless you intended to say that the previous poster pelled something incorrectly, but unfortunately I am not the beholder of a Ph.D. and therefore pell as a verb is not in my vocabulary, nor is it in my trusty old Webster's. Again if we follow your rules that misspellings invalidate a post let us return again to your second sentence where you used the contraction for "You are" when I believe you meant to use the posessive form "your", unless you intended to write "yore" and refer to some other ancient post that you believe to be unreliable. Also I should further point out to you that when you spelled "hat" at the beginning of your last paragraph, your word choice does probably contain a "w" at the beginning to make the word "what." But alas, you have a Ph.D. (in some field that you did not mention - grounds for an unreliable post perhaps?) so you were surely aware of these slight misspellings before criticizing those of others. As for me, I happen to pronounce "often" without the "t" because that is how I learned it, but also to keep with pronunciation schemes words like soft - soften, haste - hasten, chaste - chasten, and also hustle, bustle etc. It does make me cringe a little inside when I hear "often" pronounced with the "t," but if, as several have suggested, this pronunciation has resurged as a result of better and broader education and literacy throughout the world, then I believe that coping with the occasional pronunciation with a "t" is something I dearsay I would be happy to accept as a consequence. I apologize for the somewhat pomptuous (yes, with a silent t - props to that comment by the way) nature of this post, but we all should know that advice we receive from the internet on forum websites should be taken with a grain of salt and misspellings and typos are a reality of the high speed electronic age. Cheers, Peter Broch (sans Ph.D.)

Re: you're or your

Kooyeen — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:39:14 GMT

The correct form is obviously "you're". You're beautiful! However, "Your beautiful!" sounds the same as the contraction "you're", and it's so common on the net that sometimes I even think it actually looks better, LOL. I'm afraid the majority of "you're" on Youtube comments are spelled "your"... it must be because it's faster to type. On the other hand, I've seen people with an average of above average education who seem to use "your" pretty frequently anyway. Either common typos or many people think "your" is an informal spelling for "you're".
And Black people have nothing to do with "your". But I guess they can say "You beautiful, shorty!" (no verb to-be in African American English)

Re: Will you correct my English?

Anthony@iPodenglish — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:03:40 GMT

hi ..how are ya ?

this might help ..

F: I can't play tennis well, and I don't have a racket.

Native English: IÂ´m not (so) good at playing tennis..plus I don't have a racket, so I cant play.

F: Good. May I take my boyfriend with me?

Native English: ThatÂ´s great .can I bring my boyfriend with me? OR can I bring my boyfriend too?

M: Darn it, I have to take the garbage out now.

( Also I think youÂ´re missing the Auxilliary Verb Will with the subject/pronoun I in contraction..

I think you want to say IÂ´ll have to take the garbage out now

and..NO NO NO !!! nobody sayÂ´s Â¨darn itÂ¨ ! (Well maybe some Americans)

Say something like Damn! ...or some other 4 letter wordÂ´s not repeatable here

Hope that helps

Anthony

Re: Need Help with this sentences

nona the brit — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:32:06 GMT

Hello, welcome to the forum. No need to say sorry - that's what we are here for

You have quite a few problems but nothing major and you are certainly understandable, so you are getting there!

I'd say your main problems are

verb tenses - for example 'technologies keep evolve' should be 'keep evolving'.

confusing nouns with adjectives - for example 'a lot of beneficial' should be 'a lot of benefit'.

I've underlined these and other problematic areas. Some of your phrasing is clumsy and other areas are incorrect. I'm also not sure if you are discussing a specific software or this type of software in general - you may need to phrase things differently accordingly.

Urban systems nowadays explicitly are becoming huge and increasingly complex as urban economies, social and political structures and norms, transportation and other infrastructure systems and technologies keep evolve. It is a three-dimensional (3D) representative to visualize the urban area and (is) becoming an important tool for urban planners or architects in order to propose design and development of the city. While the tools for visualize the urban simulation and technology are growing at rapid phase, itâs (don't use contractions in formal writing) become useful to speed the process of development. Hence, with urban simulation, we can reduced design flaws, grasp the concepts better and understood sooner, and the best things are, development budget can be targeted earlier with the help of this 3D visualization tool before construction phase.

Real time simulation bring the product which is urban simulation in effective way closer to both the designer and the client to completely understand a building very well before construction of the building takes place. Despite the fact that many companies use 3D visualization technology as their interactive presentation tool, urban simulation clearly gives a better idea to envision all phases of an architectural project from earlier design to the last phase of construction and preservation. So, it is very important for us to have a simulation that represented a city that can be used as a tool for urban planning for future development, computer games, and many more. Furthermore, urban simulation has a lot of beneficial to the researchers especially in term of producing a good 3D simulation for user to be able to feel how the city looks from different perspectives.

Please Check My Answers

Blondie024 — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:08:36 GMT

1. The possessive of a plural noun ending in s is formed by adding:

A. another s and an apostrophe. B. another s only. C. an apostrophe only. D. none of the above

I think the answer is C.

2. Which of the following shows the correct possessive form of a plural noun?

A. three dogs bowls B. three dog's bowls C. three dogs' bowls D. none of the above

I think the answer is C.

3. In a contraction, the apostrophe replaces:

A. missing letters. B. using an s. C. a unit of measurement. D. none of the above.

I think the answer is A.

4. Which of the following is a correct contraction of "they would"?

A. they'ld B. they'd C. they'wld D. none of the above

I think the answer is D.

5. Which of the following shows the correct possessive form of "children"?

A. childrens B. childrens' C. childrens's D. children's

I think the answer is A.

6. A preposition connects a (n):

A. subject and verb. B. object and modifiers. C. subject and predicate. D. adjective and adverb.

Re: The difference between Let us and Let's.

Carson21 — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:01:56 GMT

Not really a difference. It's essentially an idiomatic suggestion, nowadays. "Let us" would literally translate as "allow us", but it more closely means "we should/should we/how about we/why don't we".

Saying "let us" only differs from "let's" in nuance. They mean exactly the same thing. "Let us" might be a bit more formal because it's not a contraction. Or it might be used emphatically. "Let's" is fast, it's easy to say, more suited for fast speech or making a 'quick suggestion'. Also, it can take away emphasis from the "us" and so cause the emphasis to be placed on the verb: "Let's GO".

They're completely interchangeable, though. Say whichever your prefer, no one should 'bat an eye-lash'. Rather, it's unlikely anyone will care, even if they notice.

Re: chronicle

Delmobile — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:23:45 GMT

I kept trying to turn this into a snippy Algonquin-round-table type remark: "She was a mass of contradictions, many of which are chronicled in her writing." In other words, she's a lousy writer (her writing is full of contradictions), as well as a mess personally

But I don't think you can use the verb like this; someone could chronicle their travels in Scotland, or their years in therapy, or even their childish hopes and dreams, but not "a mass of contradictions." Even though "contradictions" might be chronicled ("After endless frustration, we decided to chronicle the many contradictions in the overpriced Traveler's Guide to Rome, and have reproduced them here so that they might be of help to other travelers") the phrase "a mass of contradictions" refers to a personality trait and doesn't work with "chronicle."

Maybe "The fact that she was a mass of contractions can be seen in her writing." Or "Anyone reading Susie Bookauthor's work carefully can see that she was a mass of contradictions."

Re: Where to find daily conVerSation

Tanit — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:13:00 GMT

Hi K.,

I spent a whole year in the UK, doing a postgraduate course. To make things worse, I chose to go to Wales because Cardiff Uni is at the cutting edge in my field. Have you ever heard somebody speaking with a Welsh accent? For the first two months there, I only wanted to cry... In spite of my excellent performances during tests and exams (I had taken the FCE, the CAE and the TOEFL), I could understand very little outside the Uni
You know, most teachers' accents were pretty standard and easy... something like BBC's anchors, and my classmates were mostly international students, each with their own accent (we were a funny bunch!). I simply became accustomed to them... Welsh English (there was a girl who had a nice Swansea accent), Scottish English, Cornish English, Virginia English (AmE), Indian English, but also French-English, Chinese-English, Pakistan-English, Greek-English and lot more! Oh, I really miss them!
However, cashiers in supermarkers and kids playing in the parks were too hard for me... real English, lots of phrasal verbs I had never heard before, lots of contractions, and intonation quite different from the one I am used to!!!
Funnily, for a piece of coursework I had to interview six people. I was quite discouraged when I had to do the write-ups of the interviews (I remember you posted in the thread I created, "Spoken English").

Anyway, what I wanted to say is: formal education (all of the four skills) has helped me a lot to deal with University tasks, or with "formal" situations; it was not of (great) use, though, when it came to "real", daily life. I had often to guess, but people were usually kind, and when I made it clear I hadn't understood, they would repeat slowlier what they had just said, or rephrase it.

Re: ''Should I not respect you?'' and ''Shouldn't I respect you?''

Yankee — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:11:28 GMT

Jackson6612 wrote:
1: I should not respect you.

2: Should I not respect you?

3: Shouldn't I respect you?

The sentences 2 and 3 are the interrogatives made from the sentence 1. The sentence 3 is much more common than sentence 2. In grammar, a clause that is in the interrogative has its subject following do, be, have, or a modal verb. That means sentence 2 is grammatically correct. If that's the case, then sentence 3 is grammatically incorrect. If it is, then why is it used so frequently? Perhaps, it's just idiomatic.

Hi Jackson

You left out an important sentence:
4. I shouldn't respect you.

The words should and not are contracted as shouldn't.

Basically, if you want to use that contraction in a question, the only option you have is to invert the subject and the contraction. That is also grammatically correct and standard.

Your sentences 1 and 2 are very formal and would be used primarily in formal written English.