Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[flaps]

hello,
1. How can I complete the following sentence?
"The young woman wanted to have a child ............ the famous singer X."
2. Which one is correct?
a) The film made a 30-million-dollar boxoffice.
b) The film made 30 m dollars at the boxoffice.
3. What's the meaning of 'of' in the following sentences? What kind of usage is this?
"It is of great importance", "It is of three types."

[flaps]

is it by or with in the first question?

[CP]

1. You can use either "by" or "with."

2. Neither one is correct. You should write it:
"The film made $30 million at the box office." (Say "$30 million" as "thirty million dollars.")
or
"The film had a $30-million box office."

I don't like using "M" or "m" to mean "million," since "M" is the Roman numeral 1,000, and traditionally any number followed by M means to multiply it by 1,000, not by 1,000,000. Hence: 26M means 26,000, not 26 million.

3. "It is of great importance" means, "It is very important."

"It is of three types" doesn't make sense to me. Maybe you mean, "It is one of three types," or "There are three types." Did you see "It is of three types" written somewhere?
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb