Questions relating to the pattern of words in a sentence.
Questions tagged [sentence-patterns]
378 questions
5
votes
1 answer
Is there a word in English for this particular type of humourous use of a word twice
An employee is hauled before a manager for allegedly calling a foreman a bastard. He replied:
"I never called him a bastard, the bastard."
Peter Bear
- 91
4
votes
2 answers
Loudly is Complement or adverb/adjunct in the sentence The cat / scratched / loudly
Loudly is mentioned as Complement when it is actually an adverb or adjunct in the site, http://changingminds.org/techniques/language/syntax/clause_arrangement.htm . Is it right or wrong?
I have given the following based on my understanding. Is it…
miracles
- 431
4
votes
3 answers
If I write two phrasal verbs with difference prepositions consecutively, can I omit the first preposition?
Give or take away something from someone.
The problem in this sentence is that normally one would say "Give to" or "take away from" someone, but what should I write when I want to refer to both alternatives?
David
- 257
4
votes
1 answer
Would be that it would be
Is anything wrong with saying "My guess would be that it would be nice"?
I feel that the "would be that it would be" part sounds wrong somehow but I can't quite put my finger on why.
9a3eedi
- 231
3
votes
1 answer
Sentences excluding "being"
I am wondering about a certain type of sentence construction which seems to somehow exclude the word being. For example,
A native English speaker, he was well suited for the task.
Well versed in the English language, he was well suited for the…
andreasdr
- 494
3
votes
1 answer
How to determine the English structural validity of a domain name
I'm in the process of creating a parser which, using a few dictionaries (English language words, places and acronyms), splits the domain name into a set of potential phrases and attempts to decide which phrase is the most likely to be correct…
Nathan Ridley
- 151
3
votes
3 answers
"Called himself doing"
A friend of mine was telling me a story about one of their colleagues and they said the following sentence: "Mike called himself cleaning up the lunch table, but he left spaghetti sauce streaked all over the place." I didn't understand at the time…
tcnolan
- 183
2
votes
2 answers
'no telling' embedded in a sentence
I was wondering if 'spread out over no telling how many years' is syntactically correct (Please see the quote at the bottom). Through the help of another forum, I now know 'no telling how many years' brings the sense 'it's impossible to guess how…
Sssamy
- 121
2
votes
1 answer
"Never on par" in a sentence
Just wondering if the following sentence is correct:
"A and B are never on par."
Is it equivalent to saying that A and B are not equal?
Must the phrase "on par" always be followed by "with"?
user322903
2
votes
1 answer
What's wrong with the sentence "I got so many requests to make some Valentine's Day treats.", if anything?
The word so feels wrong to me, but I can’t articulate why. I hear this pattern (I got so many requests to X.) frequently on a particular Youtube channel and I always think to myself You got so many requests that what?
Some definitions for so use it…
pabrams
- 132
2
votes
2 answers
Where does the name of the subject go when joining sentences with a conjunction?
Take for example the two sentences "Ria was blind" and "Yet she became a lawyer."
When we join these 2 sentences using a subordinating conjunction, which is correct and why?
"In spite of Ria being blind, she became a lawyer."
OR
"In spite of being…
GPEnglish
- 555
1
vote
3 answers
Should researchers be cited by name, or should only the work be cited?
I am currently editing an M.S. thesis. The author uses the following construction often:
"Nanot et al. have demonstrated the existence of negative conductivity in graphene [8]."
where reference [8] is a link to Nanot's work. Since roughly every…
user14717
- 123
1
vote
2 answers
Correct way of using 'overtake'
My sentence:
My shop has overtaken his shop in business.
Will it be okay if I rewrite it as:
My shop has overtaken his shop's business.
?
Requst: Please consider re-titling the question if necessary...
Tabrez Ahmed
- 676
1
vote
0 answers
Is the position of the clause in this sentence okay?
I’m trying to figure out if this sentence is ordered properly. Is it okay to start the sentence with this clause — "From the moment someone requests ..." — which really modifies the "customer experience"? Please don't tell me to just tack it onto…
debbiesym
- 1,044
1
vote
0 answers
Correct sentence
What is the correct form? It's a the title of an article
How I used my air pilot transferable skills to build a new career
Or
How I used my transferable skills as an air pilot to build a new career
Elisa
- 11
- 2