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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Latest Posts : Grammar
The following sentence is taken from Advanced English CAE:
Within seconds Barry, who was wearing enormous rubber boots, had tied a rope to the front bumper of the car and was pulling it out with the tractor.
I’d say:
Within seconds Barry, who was wearing enormous rubber boots, tied a rope to the front bumper of the car and pulled it out with the tractor.
Any opinions?
I recommend that you do not take this pill.
I recommend that your wife does not take this pill.
I recommend that you not take this pill.
I recommend that your wife not take this pill.
Are all four sentences correct English? Do many native American/British English speakers use verb forms like in the first two sentences?
I am sure most of us will agree that “from” is the only preposition which should follow the word “different”. However it would be interesting to hear logical argument from those who favour others such as “to” and “than”.
Shouldn’t “who are you?” be “whom are you?” and “who is this?” be “whom is this?”
My co workers and I are in disagreement over how a phrase should be worded using proper English in the legal documents we type into our computer system.
If one were to say (using proper English) that John Smith used to own a piece of property would one say:
“The current tenant states that John Smith IS the previous owner of 2400 Green Cir.”
OR would one say:
“The current tenant states that John Smith WAS the previous owner of 2400 Green Cir.”
Which way is correct? And WHY (please explain why the correct way is correct--what rules apply, etc.).
In English, there are comparisons and superlatives for some colours. Take for example: black, blacker, blackest; blue, bluer, bluest.
How about other colours like silver and gold/golden?
I was talking with someone via Facebook. I thought she was wrong, and she wrote back to me: “No, Donna, it is you who are wrong”. Had she left out the word “who” then I believe “are” would be correct, but since she included the word “who” then it changes to singular “you” which would require the word “is”. I believe it shoud read “No, Donna, it is you who is wrong”. Please help me on this grammatical issue.
Watching the World Cup recently has prompted me to ask: Why do the announcers refer to teams as if they are plural? For instance, “England are on the attack.” I think it should be “England is on the attack,” as we are referring to the English team which is a single unit and therefore singular?
In the interest of being concise, is it acceptable to use “Following is a complete list of tags...” instead of “The following is a complete list of tags...”
I was speaking to my administrator and explaining how I met another person in our company. I said “her and I traveled to Kansas together”. She stopped me and said it should be “she and I traveled to Kansas together”. I feel both were appropriate, but she disagreed. Could we both be correct?
