In this sentence: The ship (set/sets) sail for the city of New York on the fifth of April. Should we use “set” or “sets“? Note that it is not known if the “fifth of April” is in the past or the future. Answer In order to get the right tense, you have to know whether … Read more
So I read the following sentence from The Interpretation of Dreams and I cannot understand the grammatical structure of the following sentence: But of course I have been unable to resist the temptation to take the sting out of many an indiscretion by omitting or substituting certain material. To me, everything after “many” seems redundant … Read more
Consider these sentences, please: He writes beautifully, as befits a poet. She was buried in the cathedral, as befits someone of her position. As befits a Quaker, he was a humane man. These are sentences taken from different dictionaries. As we can see, all of them use the phrase "as befits." Q: As it is … Read more
Is there a name for distinguishing the expression "you’re being X" as opposed to saying "you’re X"? Some examples: you’re being mean / you’re mean I’m being honest / I’m honest they are being generous / they are generous Answer You’re (being) mean / honest / generous Note, first of all, that mean, honest, and … Read more
Object of Preposition Some people consider my interest in gardening an obsession. (The gerund phrase is “gardening an obsession.”) As I was searching around for the correct use of gerund phrase, I found this seemingly wrong information from a website called DAILYWRITINGTIPS (http://www.dailywritingtips.com/4-types-of-gerunds-and-gerund-phrases/). It states that the phrase “gardening an obsession” is a gerund phrase … Read more
What is the difference between try to do and try and do? To me (non-native speaker), asking someone try and do this seems a bit rude. It’s like saying you can try all you want but this must be done: try and fail is not an option. However, asking someone try to do this means … Read more
