English grammar and vocabulary: quick questions thread

Original post by L'Evil Fish

In words where there's no other vowel, and it turns into the 'eye' sound.

I think I got it. It must be words like them: spy, by, try and cry. These words don't have a vowel - except y - and the 'eye'-sound exists in pronunciation too. Are my examples right?

Reply 463

Lakesx

Original post by Lialore

Nothing sounded as welcoming as the rushing water which I knew could offer me peace at last. The river called to me. She was drawing me in. Her whispers beckoned, promising escape.

Some ideas you could mess around with :biggrin:

If you are writing a commentary then it's a decent bit of personification and mixture of sentence types - it'll give you something to talk about.

Aww thanks, I just saw these! They are great but I have already asked my teacher to check my first draft so i am not sure if I can change anything apart from punctuation/grammar... Thank you anyways.

Reply 464

Typical questions are initiated as follows:

Where do...
How do...
What do...
Why do...

I wonder whether the word 'do' is cut out under certain circumstances and if that is the case why?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 465

FormerlyHistoryStudent

Original post by Kallisto

Typical questions are initiated as follows:

Where do...
How do...
What do...
Why do...

I wonder whether the word 'do' is cut out under certain circumstances and if that is the case why?

Not exactly answering your question here, but with questions expressing ability or possibility the 'do' is replaced with 'can', 'shall', 'will', 'would' or a form of 'be'. For example,

Where shall we go tomorrow?
How are we going to get there?
What can I do?
Why would she do that?

To answer your question more directly, with questions using 'do' I don't think there is any way of cutting the word unless you rephrase them. For example, rephrasing

Where do you come from?

to

Where are you from?

You can't just say 'Where you come from?'. You might hear people say 'Where you from', though, in informal settings, but it isn't grammatically correct.

Reply 466

Original post by FormerlyHistoryStudent

Thanks to you! your answer was very helpful. I will keep your explanations in my mind.

Reply 467

Are these sentences gramatically correct?

1. The only participants were Alex and me.

2. The only people who played were Alex and me.

Also could write 'me and Alex' instead of 'Alex and me' or is it wrong?

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Reply 468

Deanzy_Motivated

Someone give me some smart words and meanings I could use for my English gcse

Reply 469

Can anyone explain me when these words below are used in English language?

shift - pospone
arrange - dispose
resemblent - similar

Although the meanings are similar, I have no idea when they are used in English.

Reply 470

desdemonata

Original post by Kallisto

Shift means to move from one location or time to another, as well as to "shuffle" ("he shifted uncomfortably"). E.g. "They shifted the sofa into the spare room" (this usage generally implies something being heavy/large, though recently it's been used to mean any sort of movement), "They shifted the meeting to next Tuesday" you can say it like this but it's quite colloquial and "postpone" is more formal, the middle option is "rearrange".

Arrange is to set a meeting/appointment anything of that kind, or to order things. E.g. "She arranged a doctor's appointment" or "She arranged her stamp collection".
Dispose means either to get rid of something e.g. "they disposed of the waste" and this is its most normal usage, it has a lot of other meanings (including having an inclination/availability), and one of them is used like "arrange" or "position" but people don't really use it much and it would be quite high register and sound odd for normal sentences.

Resemblant is used like "similar" but referring generally to appearances, though it is almost completely synonymous and can be used almost anywhere you'd use similar, it's just a less common word and slightly higher register "They came up with two similar/resemblant ideas simultaneously".

Hope this helps :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 471

Original post by Rinsed

It should be Alex and I, because in both cases they are the subject of the sentence, insofar as they are the people who played.

Think about it, you could rearrange the sentence as 'Alex and I were the only participants', it affects neither the meaning nor the case you should use.

Someone. Told me that a tip to decide whether to use I or me is take the other person out of the sentence and use the same word with the additional person. This must be incorrect then.?

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Reply 472

Original post by Rinsed

It is a good trick to the extent that if you should use I or me with only one person, then you should use the same when you add additional people, because the case does not change.

But this doesn't help in the situation that you would use me incorrectly for the single person. (Awkward phrasing of that sentence, but yea please don't use me incorrectly :frown:

)

It is not the usage of most everyday speech, I accept, but sentences of the form 'It was I' are grammatically correct. 'It was me' is not. Likewise the correct form, I am he, it was we, et cetera, not I am him, it was us.

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/it-is-i-versus-it-is-me

The article goes on to say that although you are correct, it is also acceptable to say 'It was me.' Therefore, would it be acceptable to use me in the sentences I mentioned?

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Reply 473

Original post by Rinsed

Depends on the context. In spoken speech, it would be unusual to use it nowadays. Similarly, it would be acceptable enough if you're only writing informally. But you asked which one is technically correct, and it is the 'Alex and I' form, which you should use in formal writing.

Ok. Thanks for your help.

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Reply 474

Original post by Undisclosed 15

Ok. Thanks for your help.

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Would it be correct to say 'The only people who attended the lesson were Alex and I'?

Is the above sentence punctuated correctly or do I have to insert a punctuation mark before the end of the quotation?

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(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 475

Original post by desdemonata

Your reply was helpful indeed. So when things are moved, is 'shift' a proper word to express this movement?

Can you help me again? I'm a little bit confuse with the usage of: is/are going to - will - get

Among which circumstances one of them is used? Are there circumstances in which more than one of them can be used?

Reply 476

desdemonata

Original post by Kallisto

It depends. Shift and move are not entirely the same word - move is much more common and is used for pretty much everything, including ideas like moving house/country/job, whereas shift is usually limited to moving things over small distances (the case of "shifting" something from one room to another), or a slight movement in position (as in, he shifted on his feet).

So if you are saying "they moved house" or "they moved to the other room", then no, you can't use "shift" (well you can, but it's not correct per se and would sound clumsy), because it's for moving something (not yourself, the only time you could "shift" a person would be if they were unconscious or dead and you were literally carrying them) and only for smaller distances. But for "small" ideas, both physical and abstract, shift is being used colloquially, e.g. "they shifted onto the next topic", "they shifted the meeting to next week". It's a good idea to always use "move" when in doubt, and only use shift for specific instances where you know it is used, but even then, general usage blurs these lines as words become more common and are used in more ways.

Is going to vs. will is something a lot of people get confused about. "Will" is generally for things that we believe will definitely happen "We will be in class then, so we can't go to the game" and we also use it for decisions we have just made, in that moment "I think I'll go for a walk" (you are telling them as the idea comes into your head).
"Going to" is used when we make predictions that are less certain but still based on some sort of evidence, and for decisions/plans we have already made, "I'm going to go for a walk tomorrow and get some exercise" (you have already planned to do this and are just telling someone about it), "I'm going to fail this exam, I just know it!" (You don't actually know anything yet, but based on how much you have studied/how hard this exam is, you think you probably will).

"Will" is often used where you would use "going to" for emphasis, e.g. "I'm going to fail this exam..." "No, you won't." "I will, I just know it!". This is more fatalistic as it implies there is no doubt, you are definitely going to fail.
"Will" is also used in the same sense as "going to" when it's used with words like "probably" to denote uncertainty: "It will probably rain" is the same as "It's going to rain".

So to summarise: "It's going to rain" vs. "It will rain". In the first case, you have maybe looked out of the window, it's a bit cloudy and dreary, and you think it will rain but aren't sure, it could not rain. In the second case, there are already rain clouds or you have checked the weather forecast and it says there's a high chance of rain, so you believe it definitely will.

What do you mean by "get"? :s-smilie:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 477