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pauly
Joined: 24 Sep 2004
Location: Incheon
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 Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 5:44 pm Post subject: Grammar question |
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| A co-teacher of mine wants to know why the word "by" is in the following sentence: "It pays off knowing by what rules words merge into a stream." Are there any grammar experts out there that can help me out? |
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Kyrei
Joined: 22 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 6:25 pm Post subject: Re: Grammar question |
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| pauly wrote: |
| "It pays off knowing by what rules words merge into a stream." |
Take 'by' out and try to make sense of the sentence. It is showing that the 'words' in a sentence 'merge into a stream' 'by' (i.e. according to) a set of 'rules'. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 6:34 pm Post subject: |
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In that phrase, 'by' means something like 'how':
It pays off knowing how /by what rules words merge into a stream. |
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pauly
Joined: 24 Sep 2004
Location: Incheon
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| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 6:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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I forgot to mention that there are other phrases that use 'by + what':
by what method
by what right
by what time
by what route |
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weatherman
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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| 'by' is used as a preposition in this sentence. |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:55 am Post subject: |
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| Don't forget to break sentences up into clauses. I find it helps a lot, and helped me when I was learning grammar. |
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