Teacher Discussion Forums

Boy, this is fun! I've learned a great deal from following this thread. If I may, I'd like to ask a couple of questions: I've heard of pro-verbs (similar to pronouns but they represent verb phrases), could the to in Allen's example be such an animal? The examples I've seen all use to do , eg. I want...

lolwhites wrote:...I don't see how you can rewrite it in the way you describe without altering the meaning.

No, you're quite right. They don't call me dullard for nothing!

So what did the jury decide on the adjective/adverb thing? I'm not sure. But from another thread ( http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=3878 ) in this forum, I read: ...one criteria of whether the word is being used as verb or an adjective, can you put very or really infront of it,...

People who try to fight against language change and involved in a painful and losing battle. <soapbox> You're right of course. However, in an era where English is poised to become the de facto universal second language, I feel the need to make some attempt to control the changes and to try to defin...

Then, why is it "United States history," not "the United States history?" My guess: the full name of the country is "the United Stated of America." So, "the United States History" is ambiguous, about which united states are we refering? Whereas "United States" is a common alias for "the United Stat...

I'll try! The number of people there who say they are overworked has risen from 28% in 2001 to 44% in 2004. The number of people (modifies "the number") [who are] there (modifies "the number of people") , [missing :)] <begin relative clause> who (relative pronoun, nominative case) say (present tense...

...while you couldn't rewrite it as one may dissatisfy a person...

No, but could it not be rewritten as: A long waiting list may dissatisfy a person.