Why is “I see a few trees” grammatically correct but “I see a many trees” not? I notice that “I see few trees” and “I see many trees” are both grammatically correct, since “few” and “many” are both determiners. “I see a few trees” has two determiners. Why is it grammatical in the case of … Read more
What is the correct way to indicate “Justin and I” as being possessive of our individual lives in this sentence? Is there a way to do this without restructuring the sentence? A friend of mine posted a Facebook status that said, “It was this week that Justin and my lives changed forever,” in regard to … Read more
What noun or noun phrase do you use for not doing something that you intended to do because subconsciously you did not want to do it? In speech it is called ‘a Freudian slip’. (Merriam Webster online dictionary) He meant to say "I’m glad you’re here," but what came out was a Freudian slip: "I’m … Read more
From the definition of pointed, we know that “pointed question” is something like: “A “sharp”, piercing, or directed question”. And “pointed question” has been in English since, roughly, the American Revolution: However, there is no dictionary entry for the phrase “pointed question” that I could find, neither online nor in my print dictionaries. But I … Read more
When I’m using 2.0 as an adjective, does it sound smoother to place it before the noun or after? Context: I’m talking about a magic trick involving an iPad. As it involves new technology, this magic trick could be described as “technological” or “next-generation”, something like that. Can I say it is a “2.0 magic … Read more
Is it ok to use “red and black buses and cabs” to mean “red and black buses and red and black cabs” for a city that has red buses, black buses, red cabs, and blacks cabs? If not, what would be a better construction? And are there any formal writing guidelines/rules around this? Formal as … Read more
I have recently read the following quote from a famous vegan activist: How would you feel if the moment you were born someone else had already planned the day of your execution? However, I think that there is an “at” missing: How would you feel if at the moment you were born someone else had … Read more
I am having trouble picturing the structure of this preposition phrase from the point of view of generative syntax (PP) My attempt to run it down goes like this: from (preposition) + the point of view of generative syntax (NP) the (DET) + point of view of generative syntax (nominal) And I am stuck here, … Read more
I am writing a paper that discusses different policies for accepting assignments after the nominal deadlines. Should I refer to it as a "late policy" or "lateness policy"? Here is a sample sentence: Figure 2 shows students’ ratings of different late/lateness policies. Answer What is late here is the submission of the assignments that the … Read more
I do not recall ever hearing anyone say “Some of us…” without including themselves. It appears to me that oneself is assumed to be part of the subject. However, some of is usually used to denote an arbitrary subset of something. Indeed, if I say “Some members of my book club…” no one will presume … Read more
