Topics

1

You Asked Me This Question / How Can We Help?

« on: January 07, 2014, 01:31:40 PM »

Dear Mr. Carilllo,

I've been a member of the forum since 2011. And I am truly grateful for the wealth of knowledge you share on your site. I want to know if there's anyway I can help the site so it would keep running?

Thank you.


Nathan

2

Students’ Sounding Board / Awkward Word Choices

« on: January 12, 2012, 02:15:18 PM »

Mr. Carillo,

I would like to ask how one can determine if a word choice is awkward or not? Is there a rule that sets the guideline?

In these two versions of the same idea, it seems that the second one is preferable because of word choice:

A. Other face detection technology also attempts to interpret a person’s emotions so sellers could measure what potential buyers think of their ads.

B. Other face detection technologies even try to read the expression on people’s faces in order for marketers to learn what potential buyers think of the ads.

If it so, how do we defend it?

Thank you

3

Students’ Sounding Board / Expected from/ expected of

« on: October 24, 2011, 04:54:08 PM »

Dear Mr. Carillo,

I would like to know how "expected from" and "expected of" are used specifically. What is the difference, for example, of saying "This is expected from the manager" to "This is expected of the manager"?

Thank you!

4

Students’ Sounding Board / Changing Active Voice to Passive

« on: April 26, 2011, 03:50:37 PM »

What is the function of the prepositional phrase in the passive voice? Most grammar guides say that the object in the active voice becomes the subject in passive. Is the reverse true? Does the subject become the object in the passive? In the example, The rice is harvested by the farmers , is not the phrase "by the farmers" a modifier of the verb "harvested" and thus, an adverb phrase rather than an object? Or, is the term "object" generally used to anything that completes, complements or modifies the verb?

5

Students’ Sounding Board / When do we use the present participle and the past participle as modifiers?

« on: March 04, 2011, 02:48:11 PM »

Hi Mr. Carillo,

I encountered this usage definition of present and past participle as adjectives in a textbook. I just want to know what your thoughts are about this because I find it confusing.

1. We use present participles if the noun/pronoun it describes is the one causing the adjective.

Eg. (Incorrect) The cried baby in the airport caught the passengers' attention
     (Correct) The crying baby in the airport caught the passengers' attention

Explanation: The cry was caused by the child.

2. We use past participles if the noun/pronoun it describes is not the one causing the adjective.

Eg. (Incorrect) The disappointing passengers went back home because of the airline’s flight cancellation.
      (Correct)  The disappointed passengers went back home because of the airline’s flight cancellation.

Explanation: The disappointment was not caused  by the passengers ,therefore we used the past participle form of the word “disappoint”


My thoughts:

1. I don't think nouns can CAUSE adjectives.
2. I think using past or present participle does not have this clear cut rule because it depends on the sense. For instance, disappointed passengers refer their state of being, while disappointing passengers refer to their behavior.

How do we know which participle to use when describing nouns?

6

Students’ Sounding Board / Is this an idiomatic expression?

« on: February 23, 2011, 10:12:52 AM »

Hello!

I just read an article from CNN about Manny Pacquiao and I got confused by this sentence:

"For Arum, that charity is a tangible example of Pacquiao's faith. "He's constantly calling me on the advances, on the upfront of his purse and so forth, because he spending the money on good things."

The context is about Manny's donation to charity. His promoter, Bob Arum, said this in support of what Manny is doing.

Is "calling on the advances" an idiomatic expression? Does "advances" mean the money you get before the the actual amount is given?

Here's the link to the original: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/17/the-prayerful-pugilist/#comments

Thanks!

7

Member Introductions / Hello to everyone who's paying attention on how this greeting is phrased.

« on: February 23, 2011, 10:05:15 AM »

Hi Forum!

I hope my greeting passed your grammar standards. If I slipped, that's probably the reason why I'm here. I'm so thrilled to find people troubling themselves over grammar. I'm expecting to learn a lot from this group!