Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

jayles

Member Since

August 12, 2010

Total number of comments

748

Total number of votes received

228

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Latest Comments

A New Correlative Conjunction?

  • March 20, 2014, 5:31am

@Jasper yes; using "Q" to mean "question word" doesn't really work. Perhaps just better to start with a question mark like:
?SVO = Who hit the teacher?
?OxSV = Who did the teacher hit?
?TxSVO = When did the teacher hit you?

The other mnemonic I have used on occasion are "C" for comment,cause,and concession words/phrases:

"Evidently, she picked him up at the airport." => C,SVO'P where ' marks where the separable phrasal verb particle goes.

[It's really just something to write on the board when teaching so KIS to get the point across]

A New Correlative Conjunction?

  • March 19, 2014, 7:13pm

@WW BTW I've never really sorted out how to write up ;
"Who hit the teacher?"
"Who did the teacher hit?"

A New Correlative Conjunction?

  • March 19, 2014, 6:58pm

@WW Confirmed. Or just write it up as SxMV[OPT] if sts don't know 'pp' already. The point here is one could say:
"She walked her dog quickly down the street at dusk" => SV[OMPT] ;
or "She quickly walked her dog ..." SMV[OPT]
ie manner is often has two 'normal' positions,
but "NEVER split VO" (unless...blah blah)

The site mentioned is quite right; however personally I strive to avoid explaining complement/object and direct/indirect-object distinctions, although the latter should be easy enough in Europe with its dative-case-equipped languages. The bogey though is often languages like Russian and Hungarian that don't use the verb 'be' in the present, and Chinese with its 'adjectival verbs'.
http://mandarin.about.com/od/grammar/a/stativeverbs.htm

If English were a bit more sysematic (like V2 German), things would be easier!

What does “Curb your dog” mean?

  • March 18, 2014, 5:38pm

So they really do have kerbs in Oz? Just in the settlements?

“Anglish”

  • March 18, 2014, 5:33pm

Benefit: what was the middle English word for this?
In wills and conveyancing the phrase " to the use and behoof of someone" was standard usage until 20th century; but nowadays using "behoof" outside the word-string "for his/her/their own behoof" sounds strange.

What is the link to behoove/behove and were these doing-words erstly used in 1st and 2nd person and not hedged-in to the impersonal word-string "it behoves us all"?

On Tomorrow

  • March 14, 2014, 1:48pm

Also you need to change the timespan to 1800 to 2008 to get ADP results

On Tomorrow

  • March 14, 2014, 1:46pm

@HS+J a bit criyptic, yes; mea culpa. Go to:

books.google.com/ngrams

copy and paste in :

Monday_*,_ADP_ Monday,monday_*

and you will get a graph breaking down the book usage of monday by part of speech.
_ADP_ stands for adposition ie prepostion or postposition -see "About Ngram Viewer

On Tomorrow

  • March 13, 2014, 7:47pm

Keying in; Monday_* , _ADP_Monday to the ngram view suggests plain adverb is a minority usage.

“admits to”

  • March 12, 2014, 3:40am

@HS Friends and family live on as long as we remember them. And in their children.
Sometimes I play "Stranger on the Shore" in rememberance of a long-ago friend who played clarinet: at the going-down of the sun, lest we forget.

“admits to”

  • March 11, 2014, 10:21pm

Only then is one admitted TO heaven.