I keep seeing “Look at” and “Look over” being used, but I don’t quite understand the difference between them. The boy looked over her. The boy looked at her. Answer The boy looked her over. He examined her from head to toe. He could be attracted to her beauty, or looking for an injury after … Read more
Which one of these sentences is the most natural way to say this? You have to walk 200 feet up on Elm Street. You have to walk up 200 feet on Elm Street. You have to walk up for 200 feet on Elm Street. (Is this even used/correct?) Also, assuming Elm Street extends from north … Read more
In this sentence: The diet could be prescribed for someone with any disease in which there is an abnormal retention of fluid. Is it correct to replace “in which” with “in that”? Where we could do that? Are they interchangeable? Can we put prepositions exactly next to “that” (as a relative pronoun)? like this: He … Read more
A. He backs. B. He is back. C. he will be back What is the difference in meaning between these? Answer Back in B. and C. is a locative expression meaning, approximately, “once again at the place he left earlier”. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language would classify it as an “intransitive preposition”, meaning … Read more
Consider these examples: They are everywhere. There is food everywhere. I used sentences like these a lot but lately I realize that everywhere is an adverb. What about those grammar rules that say “using adjective with linking verb” ? Answer Some “adverbials” can act as adjectives. Locatives in particular—expressions which designate a location in time … Read more
[Ron] “Look –– they’re off Ouch!” Someone had poked Ron in the back of the head. It was Malfoy. “Oh, sorry, Weasley, didn’t see you there.” (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) They say adverbs can modify the head of noun phrase, not nouns. So ‘there’ does not modify ‘you’. What does ‘there’ do: is … Read more
“Give that here, Malfoy,” said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch. Malfoy smiled nastily. “I think I’ll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find – how about – up a tree?” “Give it here!” Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn’t been lying, he could fly well. … Read more
Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives – he didn’t belong to the library, so he’d never even got rude notes asking for books back. (Harry … Read more
