Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[DisabledFrog]

Hi there.. Would you please tell me which forms of the following sentences are grammatically correct and why:

'She dresses very pretty / prettily'

'I asked him if he had had / has had a good day'

'The station is too far away for walking to / to walk to'

'My father enjoyed cooking / to cook the dinner' (I think the first one is correct but I can't explain why)

'Whenever there was a visitor, the dog was running / would run to the door'

'He is an engineer in cotton industry / the cotton industry'

'He didn't come home last night. I wish that he did / had '

'I'm going to a wedding. I need to be cleaning my suit / have my suit cleaned ' (this one's a killer)

'The man said he did not much mind / mind having to walk '


Sorry to have too many...
Thanx in advance for the help.
_________________
There is a fine line between not knowing and not learning!!!

[myprofe]

[Mary W. Ng]

Hi, DisabledFrog,

You need to add a full stop (period) at the end of each sentence, before the closing quotation mark.

[2006]

1...She dresses very pretty is what people say. "pretty" expresses the end result. I don't think anyone would use "prettily" here. "Prettily" may seem appropriate but if you use "prettily", it suggests that she 'does the act of dressing' in a pretty manner.

2...I asked him if he had a good day. I don't think any native speaker would say "has had" or especially "had had" in this context!

3...to walk to
4...cooking
5...would run
6...the cotton industry
7...had
8...have my suit cleaned
9...mind having

[DisabledFrog]

Thanks very much everyone.

That was really helpful.
Merry Christmas!
_________________
There is a fine line between not knowing and not learning!!!