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Amazing. Good luck to you sir.

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Thank you so much, I get tired of looking at broken sentences on the forums!
bump for the most useful topic in the chatterbox biggrin

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This thread is awesome. And, by the looks of the thing, highly needed.

Thank you for making it.

*bump*

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Subject-Verb Agreement.

The subject of a sentence is what the sentence is about. It's a noun that's reponsible for performing the action of the verb. Let's do this together, so that we don't get confused, shall we?

The dog ran to his master.

Ask yourself, "What is this sentence about?" The sentence is about the dog. What does the dog do? The dog runs. So, in this sentence, the subject is 'dog,' and the verb is 'ran.' Unfortunately, I have seen people having trouble with making these two parts of the sentence work properly with each other.

You wouldn't say "My mother cook the meals in the kitchen," because the subject in this sentence (mother) is singluar (only one). The verb needs to show that the subject is singular. To make this work, you'd write:

My mother cooks the meals in the kitchen.

See? Easy, isn't it? When using a singular subject, you use the singular form of the verb.

He cooks.
They cook.
The dog digs.
The dogs dig.

See what I mean? It's rather simple, once you get the hang of singular and plural subjects and verbs. Now, supposing you have one of those tricky situations, like "everybody." The word may seem to be plural, because there is more than one person in the group of "everybody." Unfortunately, this is not the case. Everybody is considered a singular noun, because the whole group of people is counted as one. It's just like other words that are used to describe a group.

Examples:

Family
Student body
The cast (such as The cast of a movie or play)
Everyone

In cases like these, make VERY sure to use the singular verb to describe the subject.

Our class president told the student body that it should vote.

It's not "they" should vote; it's "it" should vote. The student body is being taken as one large group, and is considered a single entity. Let's try another one, shall we?

Everyone is responsible for proper grammar use.

See? It's not "everybody are," because the word everybody is still considered a singular noun.
Wow, this actually was so old it got kicked out of my Latest Topics. It's back now. I'll add your lesson, Catch-22.

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I think this is a great thread, far better than critisizing those on their poor English. smile

I will post the banner on the main page of my guild.
Blado
I think this is a great thread, far better than critisizing those on their poor English. smile

I will post the banner on the main page of my guild.


Awesome, thanks. Anything to help spread this around.

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Which indefinite artcile should I use?

Should I use the indefinite article "a" or "an?"

The indefinite article "a" should be used to precede any consonant sound that follows it (including y and w). In simpler terms, if you say the word aloud, and hear any consonant sound, y, or w, make sure to use "a" to describe one of that item.

Examples:

a dog, a cat, a rat, a youth, a uniform. (Notice the hard y sound in the last two words)

The indefinite artcile "an" should be used in front of any consonant sound.

Examples:

an hour (see? it goes by sound, not letter), an orange, an ear, an anathema

heart

Although there are arguments about the use of "an" in fron of history, historical, humble, and hypothesis, it's preferable to stick to convention, and use "a" instead of "an." It's been changed over time to "an" because the initial /h/ sound in the beginning of those words becomes almost lost in the rest of the word, since it's an affectation often used by only the snooty foppish dandies of old.

Better to stick with the rules on this one. How many people do you (personally) like that actually drop the /h/ sound in "hypothesis?"
Catch-22: I covered articles in Parts of Speech - Nouns, but thanks. I'll add this as a reference for more detail, I suppose.

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SpazLink
Catch-22: I covered articles in Parts of Speech - Nouns, but thanks. I'll add this as a reference for more detail, I suppose.


Whoof. It really IS like making a UN resolution, isn't it, SpazLink? gonk
Catch-22
SpazLink
Catch-22: I covered articles in Parts of Speech - Nouns, but thanks. I'll add this as a reference for more detail, I suppose.


Whoof. It really IS like making a UN resolution, isn't it, SpazLink? gonk


Yeah, it is. Rather like trying to convince a half-Japanese person that the Japanese sound romanized as "R" has nothing to do with the English "R" sound.

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SpazLink
Catch-22
SpazLink
Catch-22: I covered articles in Parts of Speech - Nouns, but thanks. I'll add this as a reference for more detail, I suppose.


Whoof. It really IS like making a UN resolution, isn't it, SpazLink? gonk


Yeah, it is. Rather like trying to convince a half-Japanese person that the Japanese sound romanized as "R" has nothing to do with the English "R" sound.


Owwwwies. gonk

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Short tip on 'who' and 'whom' I learned;

When you're speaking, and you want to know whether to use the word 'who' or the word 'whom', just change the word to 'he' and if it sounds better as 'he' use the word 'who', if it sounds better with 'him' then use the word 'whom'.

ie.

"Who/Whom is bringing the cheese?"
"He/Him is bringing the cheese?"
The word 'he' sounds better, so it would be 'who'

(Confirmation question, confirming a statement)
"It was who/whom?"
"It was he/him?"
In this case, 'him' sounds better, therefore the question should use 'whom' and sound like:
"It was whom?"

If you can't figure out which to use, the safest one to use is 'who'. smile
Blado
Short tip on 'who' and 'whom' I learned;

When you're speaking, and you want to know whether to use the word 'who' or the word 'whom', just change the word to 'he' and if it sounds better as 'he' use the word 'who', if it sounds better with 'him' then use the word 'whom'.

ie.

"Who/Whom is bringing the cheese?"
"He/Him is bringing the cheese?"
The word 'he' sounds better, so it would be 'who'

(Confirmation question, confirming a statement)
"It was who/whom?"
"It was he/him?"
In this case, 'him' sounds better, therefore the question should use 'whom' and sound like:
"It was whom?"

If you can't figure out which to use, the safest one to use is 'who'. smile


This is why I wish Latin were required. If everyone took Latin, they'd have a MUCH more profound understanding of grammar as a whole--Latin has, according to some linguists, a perfect grammar.

Your tip works, albeit awkwardly. This post is just to point out one of your examples is wrong.

"Was" is the past tense of the verb "to be," which is the primary copula (linking verb) in the English language. In every language I have studied, the copula essentially took no object; all nouns handled by the copula were in the nominative case.

In English, typical nouns don't have cases, but pronouns do; this is why, I believe, there are so many problems with pronoun usage. Nobody knows what to do with them, because they're not taught as they should be.

What I'm getting at: the correct example should read:
"It was who/whom?"
"It was he/him?"
In this case, 'he' is correct, due to the copula, therefore the question should use 'who', thus:
"It was who?"

I also have a problem with the fact that you're using "it" (a neuter pronoun) to refer to a gendered object (a person), but considering the question is normally phrased "Who was it?" I guess that's acceptable.

(Note: I refer to it as a copula instead of a verb because I believe in some languages, the copula actually isn't a verb. Japanese is an example of this.)

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