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Help. Help. Help
Help me with a couple of questions.
I am being outsmarted by my students.


English is not my mother tongue, tongue, tongue,,,, tough, tough, tough
1.
" Two genes located physically closely together on a chromosome
nearly always end up in the same gamete"

--> Here, can we say close together instead?
I looked up the dictionary, but I'm not sure
how close and closed differ in its subtle meaning
in this case.

In the above sentence,
which sounds better "closely together" or "close together?"
2.
"A rain forest receives over 100 meters of rain,
distributes throughout the year"

--> Here, I think (over 100 meters of rain) is omittted after 'distributes' because distribute is always a vt.
Am I on the right track?

3. the difference of to infinitive and ing
1) There are people working at home with computers (0)
2) There are people to work at home with computers (x)

According to the grammar book I have,
the first sentence is right and the second sentence is not
because to infinitve has the nuiance of the future
while ing has the nuiance of the past.

Do you agree?

If, so
1) There will be people working at home with computers.
2) There will be people to work at home with computers.

How do these two sentence sound to you?


Thanks

heyiamhere wrote:Help. Help. Help
Help me with a couple of questions.
I am being outsmarted by my students.


English is not my mother tongue, tongue, tongue,,,, tough, tough, tough

One person's opinion:

1.
" Two genes located physically closely together on a chromosome
nearly always end up in the same gamete"

--> Here, can we say close together instead?
I looked up the dictionary, but I'm not sure
how close and closed differ in its subtle meaning
in this case.

In the above sentence,
which sounds better "closely together" or "close together?"

This one seemed obviously "close" to me until I read it a few times and then wasn't sure. Heh. Someone else is going to have to tell you why.

2.
"A rain forest receives over 100 meters of rain,
distributes throughout the year"

--> Here, I think (over 100 meters of rain) is omittted after 'distributes' because distribute is always a vt.
Am I on the right track?

"Distributed" should be the correct word. "A rain forest receives over 100 meters of rain which is distributed throughout the year." (It's a passive, but the "which is" is omitted.)

3. the difference of to infinitive and ing
1) There are people working at home with computers (0)
2) There are people to work at home with computers (x)

According to the grammar book I have,
the first sentence is right and the second sentence is not
because to infinitve has the nuiance of the future
while ing has the nuiance of the past.

My goodness. I thought the first sentence was right because it came from "There are people who are working at home with computers." I have no idea what they are talking about in the explanation about nuances of the past.

If, so
1) There will be people working at home with computers.
2) There will be people to work at home with computers.

How do these two sentence sound to you?

The first one sounds right and the second one doesn't. We'll see if you get some more opinions.

Oh, and by the way, you might get more answers to "grammar" questions in the Applied Linguistics forum instead of this one.
--Lorikeet

Hello, "heyiamhere"!

Look, Im not a native speaker either, but I have a point...

Well, not really for your first sentence. I strongly believe "closely together" and "close together" make perfect sense in this construction, but there is really a very subtle difference that I can feel but can't quite explain, lol!

As for the second, I'm with Lorikeet, the correct word must be "distributed".

The last two sentences sound both correct to me, but meaning different things.

"There are people to work at home with computers", inspite of being kind of odd, could mean that there are people that are going to/ that are expecting to work with computers at home... I mean, something that is to happen. Am I wrong?

Regards!
Milena

THANKS!!!!

Here is how I see it:

1. (correct sentence) "Two genes located physically close together on a chromosome nearly always end up in the same gamete."

(closely is incorrect)

2. (correct) "A rain forest receives over 100 CENTIMETERS of rain, distributed throughout the year."

(distributes and meters are both incorrect)

3. (either one could be correct)
(1) How can you get all your paperwork done in such a small office? "There are people working at home with computers."
(2) I can't find anyone to help with all this paperwork. What can I do? There's no one available to work at home with computers. ... Look in the "Work Wanted" section of your local newspaper. You'll see. "There are people to work at home with computers."

and finally, yes, both of your "There will be people..." sentences are correct.

I hope this will help you.

[If, so
1) There will be people working at home with computers.
2) There will be people to work at home with computers.

How do these two sentence sound to you?


I think what you are looking for here is the future continuous tense meaning it will be a continuous activity at a future time. For example "I will be sleeping late tomorrow." In this case, you must use will + be verb + verb -ING. So the first sentance would be correct. I can not see any time or situation when the other sentance would be applicable.

Try this conversation for sentence two:

What will we do? We have a huge mailing going out tomorrow. In two weeks we'll be swamped with BREs. Our office staff is overworked. I don't think we can find enough at-home computer people to fill the gap.

Don't worry. Just call Chuck in H.R. outsourcing. There will be people to work at home with computers.

OK. I can kind of see your point but I think you are trying to force an "enough...to do something" sentance. Still sounds odd and a little unnatural to me...but thats just me.

I agree with " on the way"