I have a question about noun clauses beginning with "what" involving infinitives. First, consider the following group of sentences. (1a) What does it take to learn from the past? (1b) It takes [quality X] to learn from the past. (1c) We do not have what it takes to learn from the past. Now I want … Read more
I’m currently reading "A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar" by Geoffrey K. Pullum and Rodney Huddleston. I’m bewildered by the following exercise, which asks us to identify the relative phrase, along with the relative element, its function and its antecedent. Which is the one you said you liked best? My analysis is as follows: Which … Read more
My question is about noun clause in the negative form. So here is the sentence: But what you can do is don’t give up. Can I use the negative form (don’t) in the second part of the sentence? And if so, is it grammatically correct? Should I use "not" instead of "don’t"? Here is the … Read more
I am wondering whether the following sentence is punctuated properly: From the previous section, the operator A is skew-adjoint; has compact resolvents; and thus has the required conditions. Answer No. All the semicolons should be commas. See this wonderfully handy resource, The Punctuation Guide. Semicolons go Between independent clauses when a coordinating conjunction is omitted … Read more
Or “He, being the nice person that he is, helped her.” Which one is correct and what’s the construction called? Answer You offer two options for handling the sentence that you are interested in: Him being the nice person that he is, helped her. and He, being the nice person that he is, helped her. … Read more
I am not sure whether the following sentence is syntax correct or not. It’s have been nearly one month that I didn’t receive any task from my leader. I know there is another sentence that can express the same meaning. It’s have been nearly one month since I received the last task from my leader. … Read more
I saw this sentence from the internet, The input to this transformer should be an array-like of integers or strings, denoting the values taken on by categorical (discrete) features I can not understand the second part of the sentence. What’s the function of the word ‘taken on’? How to analyze the ingredient of this sentence? … Read more
If you go to his house after half an hour, you will see (that) he is swimming in the swimming pool. If you go to his house after half an hour, you will see (that) he will be swimming in the swimming pool. Which one is correct? Generally, Does the tense of the main verb … Read more
According to CGEL, that-clause can function as an adjunct. The following sentence is an example from page 952 of CGEL. He appealed to us to bring his case to the attention of the authorities that justice might be done. But I can not find any explanation about that-clause as an adjunct. What is the semantic … Read more
I am confused whether comma is required after adverbial (dependent) clauses at the end of the sentence (and the difference, if any, between restrictive and non-restrictive adverbial clauses). The internet and various style manuals seem to give conflicting advice, so I am not sure what is true or, at least, what is prevalent. According to … Read more
