"Jones shake(s) hand(s) with Tom." If you regard both hand were shaken simultaneously, then, who are (is) subject? Are both Jones and Tom subject? Good question, SCZ. to shake hands is reciprocal: to shake hand.

Eq, nicely done. Eq wrote: the agent theta-role is not explicitly assigned to a noun phrase. A null syntactic object then if you willThus the active counterpart would be: 3a. (null) didn't impress her. Then the passive: 3b. She

Hi Hela, She looked over the counter. (Phrasal verb; means, inspected) She looked over the counter . (Prepositional phrase; function: adverb of place) She looked at me , in my direction. (Prepositional phase; function: adverb of place) She

Additionally, 'only' modifies the word it sits closest to: Only he has been reading since morning. He only has been reading since morning. He, only, has been reading since morning. (He alone) He has only been reading since morning. He has

To my knowledge, it's a non-count noun (it doesn't take -s), but if one had to add -s, either ?baltis or ?balties would work. Cf, another borrowing, sushi, ?sushis/?sushies.

There is a desk, a lamp, a chair, and a sofa in the room. (Each item is in the room) There are desks, lamps, chairs, and sofas in the room. (The items are in the room)

Both are fine, but they mean different things: There were a few people (more than two) There were few people (less than four)

In my dialect, Pieanne, Yes. If it's a conditional, Had they had it in stock, they would have . . . . If they had it in stock, they would have. . . .

Mike wrote: Let us not complicate things and confuse learners by discussing what is clearly not Standard English, at least not in this section of the forum. Gotcha, and thanks for the clarification, Mike.

Elviajero wrote All varieties of English, any language for that matter, including this one, have their own set of established standards and are governed by their linguistic and cultural rules which are followed by most speakers of that dialect.