Discussion Forum
This is a forum to discuss the gray areas of the English language for which you would not find answers easily in dictionaries or other reference books.
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so - Wiktionary gives these quotations:
‘There’re another two.’ ‘So there are.’
Why is the first one inverted and the second one not? I read it somewhere that it is because the answer of the second quotation confirms the first sentence (aforementioned stuff), so it is not allowed to invert. First, I can’t find another source that corraborates this reasoning. Second, why is it not allowed to invert? There must be a specific reason for this subject–auxiliary inversion.
There is a town called “Two Egg” in Florida USA. My question is; why the egg is not plural there. Also there is something like “Two egg cake”.
Can someone explain it? Actually i am planning to establish a shop. Which one would suit better “two egg” or “two eggs”
Thank you?
I’ve developed a “tic” for adding - I believe the expression is “postpositively” “is what I’m saying” at the end of a sentence. In usage, it is an intensifier. So I might say “I’ve been noticing that I use this expression a lot, is what I’m saying!” Typically after some prior exposition on the topic - this becomes the concluding thought.
Two questions - has anyone else heard anyone else say this? Where does it come from? Where did I pick it up? I’m in the Northeastern US. Is the expression or any variant from this region?
It’s awfully similar to “I’m just saying” but my understanding of “I’m just saying” is that it’s somewhat negative - connoting an undercurrent of a wink and a nod. “...is what I’m saying” doesn’t have that connotation, is what I’m saying. LOL!
Consider the sentence, “I will go home.” Is “home” a direct object, or is it part of an adverbial phrase, “to home,” with “to” elided? Since one cannot properly say, “I will go the beach,” my conclusion is that eliding “to” from “to home” is idiomatic.
Thoughts?
A Facebook reader complained that another commenter was incorrect to use the term “My Walmart” while speaking about the Walmart in closest proximity to her home. I use “my” like this all the time. Are we both incorrect to use the word “my” in this way, because we do not own the walmart as he points out, or is he just being a grammar prude?
I know “I’m having trouble logging in to my account.” is correct. But is “I’m having trouble to log in” correct?
Are there some rules in using "trouble to"? I could not find sentences using “I’m having trouble to...” but I have found “not trouble to do something” like:
Nina need not trouble to come down, everything had been arranged.
Do not trouble to don your hat and gloves, Nina.
My friends never troubled to ask me what I would like.
Nina didn’t trouble to hide his disgust.
Please help me.
Andrew Cuomo, in his popular COVID press conferences, often uses the words “dose” and “dosage” interchangeably (at least so it seems). Here is an example:
“We have the operational capacity to do over 100,000 doses a day — we just need the dosages.”
Here is another:
“To date, New York has administered 2.5 million dosages, with about 10% of New Yorkers receiving their first dose. Ninety-two percent of dosages allocated to the state to date have been used.”
I thought “dosage” refers to the amount in a dose, like x milligrams. A single dosage can have multiple milligrams, so, when you pluralize “dosage,” what exactly are you referring to, if not the number of doses?
Dog barking (movie’s subtitles)
Jennifer speaking (phone conversation)
Question: why “barking” instead of “IS barking”, and “speaking” instead of “IS speaking”?
What grammar point is that? Isn’t it Present Continuous?
I recently ran across the working word in a document that was: “re-substantial.”
Even if it were only listed as "resubstantial," my question is this: Is this even a real word? If it is, what on earth does it actually mean?
Your help is greatly needed.
1. You don’t know how I am delighted to have you as a friend
2. You don’t know how delighted I am to have you as a friend.
3. I hope one day I can do something for you to show you how you are lovable in my heart and mind.
4. I hope one day I can do something for you to show you how loved you are in my heart and mind.
Sentences 2 and 4 are correct; sentences 1 and 3 are not. Please could you explain why? Thank you.
