This sentence is from English Grammar Today by the Cambridge Dictionary: The floods were rising and it was as if it was the end of the world. My question is why should it was be there twice in that sentence? I assume that the first it was refers back to the rising of the floods. Then … Read more
I am very confused. Unless I am mistaken, I know “it” has to be a noun of some sort, but I am unable to figure out what noun “it” is referring to. What is “it” in the following sentence: It is clear that Bob likes doughnuts. Heres another couple of examples: It is impossible to … Read more
American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was quoted as saying: As “bad” as he was feeling for producers of both films, Kimmel admitted he was also “trying really hard not to laugh.” It was only after Denzel Washington yelled “Barry” from the front row that Kimmel realized he should step away from the microphone and … Read more
Recently at work I was writing the following, and I have not been able to get a firm answer on which version is the most grammatically correct. The sentence is: We would like to use one of the cables that _________ between rooms. Is the correct conjugation run or runs? I think ‘run’ is correct, … Read more
Was there some move that is beyond what was being presented to me that maybe a Churchill could have seen, or an Eisenhower might have figured out? – Barack Obama Answer Yes, those are two relative pronouns. The move is the antecedent of both thats. The main clause: Was there some move? relative clause 1: … Read more
I have come across a sentence in which the pronoun ‘it’ occurs but seems to have no antecedent, and I think it should be omitted: A controlling idea: what the writer is going to focus on it in the paragraph. For more context, here is the page of the school English textbook from which I … Read more
From a speech by Steve Jobs: a. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. If the sentence is to work syntactically, dogma has to be the antecedent of which. Dogma is defined in LEXICO as: A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as … Read more
A sudden question popped up in my head just now: which of these two sentences are correct, or are they both wrong? I write books that nobody reads or even knows that they exist. I write books that nobody reads or even knows that exist. I think what I am trying to express with these … Read more
In the following sentence: Dogs hate cats as they are naughty. does the pronoun “they” refer to dogs or cats? In other words, who is naughty here? Answer Syntax determines some places in which a particular noun phrase can not be the antecedent of a pronoun, but other than those absolute prohibitions, the choice of … Read more
I am not trying to be funny (other than the fact that the joke is, in and of itself, funny). I’m asking someone to parse this for me. Seems to me it should be something like, “You can’t put a flower in an ahole and say it’s in a vase.” Or, “You can’t put a … Read more
