Messages

76

Use and Misuse / Re: Will and would

« on: October 03, 2012, 01:50:55 PM »

I was about to ask very same question, Miss Mae, if not in the way you've done. I myself find it particularly confusing as to the proper usage of the two modal verbs when talking of future actions in the present moment. I fail to realize what the difference is, for example, between ''I will travel to Washington next weekend'' and ''I would travel to Washington next weekend.'' 

77

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: Missing 'the'

« on: September 23, 2012, 07:08:57 PM »

I massively appreciate your time and energy, Sir, with regard to this issue of adjective complements and how they are formed in English sentences. But even so, I have to make it very clear that my understanding--at least for the time being--remains entirely unswayed of them as words that must always follow adjectives. What I'll unwaveringly stick to, in other words, is that an adjective complement is literally a ''complement of an adjective''--always a prepositional phrase, an infinitive phrase, or a noun clause-- and thus should appear only where an adjective has appeared. I consider that as the only way to prevent myself from plunging into the complexities of grammar. Of course, once my (grammar) brain is mature enough to absorb as many new ideas as possible, I will ponder over accepting this proclamation of yours: an adjective complement can as well be anything than a prepositional phrase, an infinitive phrase, or a noun clause. 

78

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: Missing 'the'

« on: September 23, 2012, 02:08:43 PM »

Permit me, Sir, for the first time to differ with your explanations. I'm afraid to say what you've explained about ''adjective complements'' is somewhat against what my comprehension tells me about them, or at least what many grammar resources talk of them. A legitimate adjective complement, as far as I'm concerned, should, in the same way as a noun complement does for a noun, complement an adjective in the sentence. That being the case, we can tentatively make this principle: ''no adjective, no adjective complement.'' Your saying, then, that the noun phrase ''National Autism Awareness Month'' is an adjective complement in that unmistakably adjective-less sentence ''The US has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month'' is not only confusing but also inapprehensible, especially for a beginning English grammar learner like me. I think I won't risk demolishing what I have known about adjective complements; that is, are words (prepositional phrases, infinitive phrases, or noun clauses) that follow always an adjective to complete or complement it. And here are a few examples of such constructions that take up adjective complements: ''She was unhappy with his decision to leave the company'' (a prepositional phrase as an adj. complement), ''I am really disappointed to see she's treated in that humiliating way'' (an infinitive phrase as an adj. complement), and ''They were so excited that their job applications had been approved by the employment committee (a noun clause as an adj. complement)

79

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: Missing 'the'

« on: September 21, 2012, 12:17:21 PM »

Sir, I'm specifically drawn to your stating that the noun phrase ''National Autism Awareness Month'' in the sentence ''The United Sates has gone one step further to make April National Autism Awareness Month'' is serving as an ''adjective complement.'' I don't agree with you because my understanding is that that noun phrase functions as an object complement for the noun ''April'' that precede it, an object complement being defined as a word or phrase (usually a noun, pronoun, or an adjective) that follows the direct object and renames it or tells what it has become following the verb's action--by the action of the verb ''make'' in this particular case. An adjective complement, as I see, is an infinitive, a prepositional phrase, or a noun clause that follows an adjective to complete it. As you may have appreciated in the sentence in question, the noun ''April'' doesn't at all qualify as an adjective and therefore the phrase ''National Autism Awareness Month'' is certainly far from being an adjective complement.

80

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Words I fail to use.

« on: September 06, 2012, 12:31:39 PM »

I will be pleased, Sir, if you find time to attend to this particular question of mine that you've apparently left in limbo. If it's because the question is too unreasonable to be answered, I will similarly be pleased to know about that so I start to be extra careful when making questions to the Forum. I haven't helped making this follow-up due to the fact the Forum has indeed been of much help to me and always has been my sole recourse when it comes to seeking clarifications related to grammar matters.

81

My Media English Watch / Re: Tricky subjunctive sentences trip both academic cleric and reporter alike

« on: September 05, 2012, 10:57:05 AM »

Even though I'm still struggling to make my English perfect, I can't be so careless as to commit such serious grammar bloopers. It's indeed baffling that newspaper and broadcast reporters, who are otherwise expected to be more meticulous in their English perhaps than any other person, are the ones leading in making somewhat grave grammar errors--haphazard errors most often.
And that seems to be a problem present not only in The Philipines but also in other many places, because I nearly always encounter one or two of the mistakes each time I visit the CNN or BBC news websites--which are considered to be among the first-rate English-language media companies on the planet. That is to say nothing, of course, about the perpetual gaffes committed by my local print and broadcast media, gaffes so sprinkled in their stories one may safely conclude that those media outlets are either filled with the staff extremely inadequately trained in English or led by editors so derelict in accomplishing their tasks.

82

Essays by Joe Carillo / Re: The magic that resumptive modifiers can do to prose

« on: September 03, 2012, 05:15:11 PM »

I've indeed enjoyed the subject of resumptive modifiers. But I don't think I'm willing to apply them in my prose for they sort of make sentences appear repetitive, something we've always been told to avoid at any cost.

83

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: Quoting quotes

« on: September 03, 2012, 04:45:02 PM »

As the saying goes, when there's a will, there's a way."

Both its writer and I am not sure if a quotation mark should be placed there!
[/quote
''Both its writer and I are...'' or, for parallelism advantage, ''Both the writer and I are...''

84

Use and Misuse / Re: Pinoys in UAE still coping with homesickness

« on: August 31, 2012, 06:24:58 PM »

I would automatically go for the verb in the present continuous tense ''are still trying to overcome.''

85

You Asked Me This Question / Grammar and usage

« on: August 31, 2012, 02:55:01 PM »

I've been seeing the two terms--especially in the Forum as they make one of the discussion boards-- without paying any attention to the difference that might be existing between them. I think it's important that I query about what exactly each of them means and what indeed the differrence between them is.

86

You Asked Me This Question / Re: If and whether

« on: August 28, 2012, 07:35:47 PM »

I don't understand by the statement ''if'' is used in indirect questions that don't provide a stated or implied alternative. Is it not the alternative by itself the act of refusing to accompany the original speaker to the birthday party of her brother in my sentence? Because apparently there are two possible expected results, aren't they, in ''She asked me if I could accompany her to her brother's birthday party,'' one is the accepting of the request and the other (the alternative) is refusing.

87

You Asked Me This Question / "If" and "whether" or "whether or not"

« on: August 28, 2012, 03:14:58 PM »

Please help me on how to correctly use subordinating conjunctions 'if' and 'whether' in saying or writing indirect questions. I believe, for instance, there's a substantial meaning dissimilarity between ''She asked me if I could accompany her to her brother's birthday party'' and ''She asked me whether I could accompany her to her brother's birthday party,'' isn't there?

88

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: A comma before 'which'

« on: August 28, 2012, 02:57:10 PM »

Although the sentence under discussion is said to have correctly used the conjunction ''which''--based on the British English standard-- it is still terribly wanting in the other grammar aspects, or so I've observed. To be specific, the subject of that sentence, namely ''the aim,'' is followed by a linking verb ''was'' and completed by its subject complement in form of an infinitive phrase ''to allow'' with all its associated modifiers; but has nothing to do, in my view,  with the action verb ''provided'' next to comma. My comprehension is that, for the sake of parallelism, the past tense verb ''provided'' should have been reduced to its base form ''provide'' and introduced by particle ''to'' to make an infinitive ''to provide'' so as it forms a well-balanced pair of infinitives with the preceeding one ''to allow'' by compounding them with the coordinating conjunction ''and.''                                             

89

Use and Misuse / Re: swan song

« on: August 26, 2012, 03:11:50 PM »

Sir, I fairly don't think ''The ship had sunk when the rescue team arrived,'' the sentence you've supplied as an example to clarify on past perfect tenses, is  pertinent one in that it is wrongly using the word ''when.'' My understanding of the subordinating conjuction ''when'' is that it's an adverb of time joining two clauses that have their actions taking place at one time. Since you wanted to mean the action of the arriving of the rescue team and that of the ship sinking occured at two separate times, the appropriate and correct subordinating conjuction should have been ''before,'' which, like ''when'', is the adverb of time, but unlike it, serves to show that two actions in sentence clauses indeed have taken place not in the same time. Thus my reformed, legitimate past-perfect sentence would be ''The ship had sunk before the rescue team arrived.'' But if there had been an imperative need to incorporate ''when,'' then I would have introduced another time adverb to the sentence. The other reformed sentence would therefore read ''The ship had already sunk when the rescue team arrived''

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How Good is Your English? / Re: Can we reproduce the practice tests posted in the forum?

« on: August 26, 2012, 02:35:00 PM »

Go right ahead, jdcruz! Those practice tests are meant for everybody who needs them or can find use for them. And thank for your best wishes; I greatly appreciate it.

I would write the final sentence as ''And thanks for your best wishes; I greatly appreciate them.'' Is that not the perfect way of matching a pronoun with its noun atecedent, Sir?