Teacher Discussion Forums

I saw the sentence in a book on language acquisition (Generative school) called Language Acquisition the Growth of Grammar by Maria Teresa Guasti, and she states that no child acquiring English would abstract (3) from (1) and (2): (1) a. Who do you wanna invite? b. Who do you want to invite? (2) a. ...

Who do you wanna come?

Do you see any problems with this sentence?

Thanks

José

I can speak for Portuguese, we have corno for cuckold and technically we would have corna for women who were cheated on but it does not have the same semantic power as the former, therefore nobody uses it.

José

At any rate, it's to be expected that not everyone will be expert in grammar after being exposed to Strunk and White, or having took just one composition class in college. Grammar is a very complex subject. I certainly wouldn't militate for a descriptive approach, which is don't teach it at all -- ...

What's your beef against Pullum fluffy?

José

Doesn't this /d/ become devoiced if followed by a voiceless sound and then some people might use /t/ in writing too? By the way this {-ed} morpheme when realised as /d/ or /t/ tend to disappear qaccording to some phonological environmentrs? A NN speaker asks. I earned some money working there. José

I ask because at a first glance, for me miserable was modifying living and not the copula, just that.

Looking up the word miserable I came across the following definition on http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define. ... &dict=CALD

miserable (UNHAPPY)
adjective
1 very unhappy:
She's miserable living on her own.


Isn't it an adverb here, miserably?

Thanks as usual

José

Given:


(1) How could I hear not?
(2) How couldn't I hear?

Is (1) only old usage (as somebody in another forum I take part claims) or does it have a different meaning from (2) in current English? If it is proper modern English, how does it differ from (2)?


Thanks

José

I've just come across this sentence 1)She has a serious boyfriend. I think it's a straight translation from Portuguese into English. The idea would be she has one boyfriend and does not go out with any other guy . Is it possible to convey this meaning with (1)? If not, how could I have it in English...

heheheehe picked....simply a typo fluffy.

Thanks a bunch for the feedback

José

Hello I have one exercise which students are supposed to choose the most appropriate form according to the situation given, one of items says "If your wallet had disappeared from your pocket, you would say..." and then we have the following choices: a) Someone has picket up my wallet. b) Someone has...

A student of mine took a test at his company to check his level of English and on his feedback sheet there is a remark saying that he wasn't supposed to say I'm not on duty but instead I'm off duty . A fast googling showed me lots of entries for I'm off duty , but on a daily basis (and pragmatically...

There is one question in a test that I have to apply. I think both answers are correct. Students taking the test have to choose the meaning of deep between intense or going down from the top . What do you think? Below is the text and where you find the word in context. "HEAVY RAINS BRING DEVASTATING...

Given the sentence:

She fought with me.


According to what I looked up, it means that me and she were allies. Does this sentence for you could also convey the idea that she fought against me?

Thanks

José