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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John said, “My birthday fell on last Friday.”
If the above is reported, which verb should I use?
John said that his birthday fell/had fallen on the previous Friday.
Working from a textbook, one exercise requires students to find the error in different sentences. Can anybody find the error in the following sentence?
*The painting of the Buddha, that has nine figures, made the religion more concrete to believers in 13th-century Tibet.*
The sentence refers to a picture in the book of a painting of a Buddha with several other figures (bodhisattvas) around it.
Sections of the sentence is underlined. I will use square-brackets to indicate the underlined sections. The error should be with one of these underlined sections. Here is the sentence again:
The painting of the Buddha[, that has]{A} nine [figures,]{B} made the religion more [concrete]{C} to believers in [13th-century Tibet.]{D}
The Teacher’s Edition of the textbook says that the error is with {A}. If this is correct, what is wrong with it?
Thanks!
1. which one is correct? “i am glad to be of some help or i am glad to be of any help?”
2. what`s different between them?
“The liquidity is high, as evident/evidenced from the Reserve Bank of India’s reverse repo auctions.”
Which one of these two words would be more appropriate here? How do we decide that ?
Ok I am always coming up against the following with non-native speakers: disinterest vs uninterested dissatisfied vs unsatisfied disorganised vs unorganised
Any simple rule of thumb or guideline?
“In this letter, we describe a practical method for sense tagging of Korean unit words in nominal compounds.”
In the above sentence, I’m curious if “sense tagging of” requires an article, as in “the sense tagging of”. Because of the “of” after “tagging” my instincts say yes, an article is necessary. But am I just adding unnecessary clutter into the sentence?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!
Why do Americans not use a preposition when talking about days of the week? “We’ll meet Monday” has an “on” “before” “after” or “during” missing. You can’t meet Monday unless it is a person or a thing; as it is a unit of time there should be a preposition; One doesn’t “meet 4 o’clock” but one may “meet at 4 o’clock” and so you do “not meet Monday” but “on Monday”.
I’ve seen some writeups around the internet where they use the word “con-cum” or “con cum with”. I know “cum” means with in Latin like “suma cum laude” or transformation like “bus cum green house (bus converted to green house). Can anyone tell me how to use “cum” correctly, or should I avoid it as much as possible?
When writing, “the below changes will take place tomorrow” followed by a bulleted list of changes, would it be more correct to use the phrase “the following...”? Or, is this a matter of personal style? In the above context, what is the phrase “the below”, an adjective?
Question; are you going to the game? If I am, I say yes. Sometimes the question is framed “You’re not going to the game, are you?” If I’m not going I maintain the response is YES. as in yes, I’m not going. This has been a source of friction with a friend for some time. Comments please over this picayune dribble.
