| Vocab help |
Sun, 09 March 2008 22:38  |
|
 knightpraetor |
 | Chief Warrant Officer 1 |
Messages: 154
Registered: October 2006 | |
|
I'm looking for words meaning an unfortunate incident or something like that
Report message to a moderator
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Vocab help |
Tue, 11 March 2008 06:31  |
|
| Soobie |
 | Officer Cadet 3rd Year |
Messages: 270
Registered: May 2007
Location: Australia | |
|
Probably sh/could have been a 'tin of used sardines'.
You've used up all the salty goodness and all thats left is a smelly empty tin can that needs to be thrown away. That is, it's something horrible.
If you must use a simile, just make something up that sounds awful. Too many similes are cliched: Which is why I'm not a great fan.
Report message to a moderator
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Vocab help |
Tue, 11 March 2008 17:38 |
|
| Soobie |
| Officer Cadet 3rd Year |
Messages: 270
Registered: May 2007
Location: Australia | |
|
wtf? A lesson in grammar?
I think this is more a matter of syntax than pure grammar. There is a fair bit of flexibility in English sentence structure. This can be good and bad.
Within the context of the part-sentence, you are correct: 'Outside' is the preposition. 'Of' is also a preposition. So within 'outside of the box' you have 2 prepositions together which, while not unheard of, is a bit tautological.
My knowledge of syntax isn't strong enough to say that 'outside of the box' is outright wrong. I think I could safely argue that 'outside the box' is generally 'more right'.
I'm happy to be corrected. My counter argument would be: Would you say "Inside of the box?" The answer should be "Probably not."
We often write what we hear. I recently saw someone write something like "the musician and his living partner" when what he was trying to say was live in partner. He had no idea what was wrong with what he had written (because there was nothing technically wrong with it per se) because the error was an error of intent.
For your second sentence, both sentences can be correct. Again, 'is' usually acts as a an auxillary verb in the 3rd person. 'My' is first person. Within "my goal is regaining market share." you are avoiding the nominative form of the pronoun in the predicate of the verb. However modern English is pretty loose on this.
Strictly speaking "My goal is to regain maket share" is probably more correct because you are also splitting the verb use while bringing together the infinitive. However it would depend on the sentences around it.
If the question was "What is your goal?" I would be inclined to answer with "Regaining market share is my goal." OR "My goal is to regain market share."
I would avoid using "[my goal] [is regaining] market share." Again, that is just me.
...
Report message to a moderator
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Vocab help |
Wed, 12 March 2008 18:38 |
|
| Soobie |
| Officer Cadet 3rd Year |
Messages: 270
Registered: May 2007
Location: Australia | |
|
| knightpraetor wrote on Thu, 13 March 2008 04:39 |
Instead, we are forced to select gauges for use within the pressure regime that we are interested.
is this sentence correct? is it ok for me to say instead:
Instead, we are forced to select gauges for use within the pressure regime that we are interested in.
the in is superfluous and unnecessary, right? but it sounds more natural to me:\
perhaps best is
Instead, we are forced to select gauges for use within the pressure regime of interest.
|
The sentence is pretty ambiguous taken in isolation. Are you selecting multiple gauges over a range of pressures or a single gauge for the particular environment?
But, to maintain the ambiguity, I would write something like:
'Instead we must select gauges for use within the pressure regime of interest.'
That is, imo your last is probably the best.
Report message to a moderator
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Vocab help |
Thu, 17 July 2008 07:39 |
|
| Soobie |
| Officer Cadet 3rd Year |
Messages: 270
Registered: May 2007
Location: Australia | |
|
| knightpraetor wrote on Thu, 10 July 2008 08:56 |
I need more grammatical help again.
I heard that i am supposed to avoid something called a split infinitive.
i want to correct this sentence.
I need to know where i can gate to from dimna
is it correct, or should I say "I need to know to where i can gate from dimna"
or perhaps
"where i can gate from dimna to"
or "where i can gate from dimna"
which ones are correct?
|
From Dimna, where can I gate (to)? (the 'to' is optional)
Where can I gate (to) from Dimna? (the 'to' is optional)
(To) where can I gate from Dimna? (this would be unusual to see)
As I understand it, the infinitive is only split when you insert an adverb and only when the 'to' comes before the infinitive of the verb. There is no split infinitive in any of your sentences that I can see as the 'to' is not before the uninflected verb.
You see, as a preposition, 'to' need not always come before a verb. It can also come before a noun. Don't lose sleep over splitting infinitives. Also, in English there is nothing wrong with ending a sentence with a preposition. 
[Updated on: Thu, 17 July 2008 08:05] Report message to a moderator
|
|
|
|
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
)
