Teacher Discussion Forums

Many thanks, Ouyang! For a while there, I thought that I had gone over the edge of my grammar sanity, and had been tripped up by a "See Spot Run" bit of syntax. I'm sadistically happy that I've managed to confuse you, too. And you're absolutely right; how many pointless, overthought grammar question...

A question posed to me recently: How many calls is too many? or How many calls are too many? The initial 'duh!' answer is to use the plural verb, matching the noun 'calls'. However, the more I chew on this one, the more I suspect that the singular verb might be just fine as well. My guess is that a ...

Thank you to everyone for your input. Lots of great ideas about this subject! I appreciate your help.

Best,

Echidna

Hey all, It's been a while since I've been on this board, but I was hoping one of you bright folks could tell me whether there's a difference between using an infinitive subject complement rather than a gerund. Or are they the same? For example... My greatest fear is to find a spider in my sleeping ...

Jotham, As I understand it, many adverbs tend to be relatively constrained to certain specific positions within a sentence, initial, mid, or final. (Initial) my dog eats earthworms. My dog (mid) eats earthworms. My dogs eats earthworms (final). For me at least, it's very difficult to get a handle on...

Hi Scot, I'd say that Buddhaheart is correct, in that it's an adjective (or relative) phrase. It seems to me, with my tenuous grammar grasp, that many relative clauses can be modified (or reduced) to this form. For instance, one could say either... The monks who lived in the caves were considered br...

Since we're on the subject, how do you rate the following in terms of their acceptability? If you agree that they hold water, are they all alternative forms of conditional sentences? I suspect so, since most of them carry the same sense of the unreal. He's coming at 6:00? I'd rather he came at 5:00....

Hello, all! A quick question about paired conjunctions for you grammar mavens out there. Does this sentence sound correct? Not only the car was stolen but also the bicycle. I know that usually not only is followed by an aux. verb, as in the following: Not only was the car stolen, but also the bicycl...

Ah, linking -- easy enough to understand, but dang hard for my students to smoothly use. For most of us, it's an unconscious thing -- "I turn_don the radio" but for my students, it's somewhat of a nightmare. I too would love to hear any ideas about teaching linking. Lorikeet recommended three excell...

Hello again, comrades in grammar! Thanks as always for taking the time to write. While I agree with both of you (twisting in bed at night over troublesome questions, eh Larry? You're as bad as me!) I have a couple of additions. Yes, very often our lovely language does not conform to tense use in reg...

Dear Larry; Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. Yes, indeed; I AM a native speaker, so I suppose it's a good thing that you think my English is good! I take your point, that the Past Perfect and other tenses do not necessarily have to reflect the TIME ORDER of the events -- a misleading fact o...

Hey everybody! Recently, I got into a little disagreement with a classmate of mine in our MATESOL program. She staunchly refuses to teach any pronunciation reductions to her students: no "gonna, wanna, hafta, outta, etc." She also refuses to teach the pronunciation of other reduced forms, such as pr...

Hey everybody! Sorry if this is posted on the wrong forum. This is taken from one of Azar's tests: "By the time he had found a parking spot, he was already late for the movie." Also, from Swan: "I arrived before she had finished unpacking." Now, I'm familiar with the rules regarding past perfect use...