The Alternative Story (TAS) - Discussion

[urbanemale]

Hi Optimistforum,


Thanks for asking, we are well. Hope you are doing fine too overseas.

You are right, the object is the house and the subject of the sentence
is the ‘it’.

The question you would ask is ‘What was it?’

Hence the answer is ‘It was a neat little house’.

TAS[/quote]Incorrect. The subject of the sentence is ‘house’. The pronoun ‘it’ is being used as a false subject here. There is no object.

Rgds
R[/quote]

R is right. "It" is being used as a dummy subject here.

[ridcully]

Hi urbanemale


Yes, there were so many more mistakes that I thought I would be overbearing if I pointed them all out! What is even scarier is that the member of staff from TAS had edited his/her posting THREE times. I guess proofreading is not well taught at TAS.

Mind you, it is not possible to properly proofread if one does not have a good command of the language in the first place.

Keep up the good work!

:celebrate:
R

[markfch]

Granted, coming from a language tutor, it is not impressive to be caught writing less than stellar English.


However, there’s no need to gloat with glee like some of the people are doing here.

I find this practice totally unnecessary and quite uncharitable.

[The Alternative Story]

Hi ridcully and urbanemale,


Thank you for your feedback. Your points are duly noted.

Anyway, just to highlight for the question "It was a neat little house"

The verb in this sentence is ‘was’. It is a linking verb. Its purpose is
to link a subject and an object together.

For this question, the ‘it’ is the subject pronoun. It is used to rename
the subject.

Egs:

Ans: It could have been a knife

The question to this answer could be:

Qn: What was the murder weapon?

"It" is used to replace the words "the murder weapon".
"a knife" is the object.

TAS

[Lynn2]

Hi TAS,


Is your latest vocab book out already?thanks

Rgds
Lynn2

[Laurenwkids]

Yes, it is unnecessary to go to such length. It seems as though great delight was taken

in attacking another person or business. TAS probably should have proof read more but to take issue with almost everything they say and to make personal attacks is uncalled for.

[Kayelinht]

I have yet to enroll my child in TAS. Timing still does not work but I have benefitted a lot from their postings when they answer parents’ questions.


I choose to focus on how they have helped me rather than to nit pick at their mistakes.

[smurfette3]

Hi TAS,


Do you have any classes for K2? My nephew just came back from China after his dad was sent there for work. He needs a lot of help for his English. I know you have a Tuesday class at AMK and a Sat class at Payar Lebar but any plans to start anymore classes?

[ridcully]

The Alternative Story:

Anyway, just to highlight for the question \"It was a neat little house\"

The verb in this sentence is 'was'. It is a linking verb. Its purpose is
to link a subject and an object together.

For this question, the 'it' is the subject pronoun. It is used to rename
the subject.

No, you are wrong. My primary purpose in posting was to correct you. If you purport to teach English, then you should not be confused over what linking verbs and false subjects are.

The purpose of a linking verb is not to link a subject and an object together: Its purpose is to join a subject to its complement.

For example, if I say:
I am happy

'happy' is not an object; it is a complement. An object receives the action of a verb whereas a complement provides further information about the subject. 'Happy' is not receiving the action of 'am'!

Swot up on 'false subject', 'object', 'linking verb' and 'complement'. Accept the correction; do not dig your hole further.

If you cannot accept the correction after swotting up, then it is to the disadvantage of your students.

Rgds
R

[ridcully]

markfch:

Granted, coming from a language tutor, it is not impressive to be caught writing less than stellar English.


However, there's no need to gloat with glee like some of the people are doing here.

I find this practice totally unnecessary and quite uncharitable.

I think it is necessary if people purport to teach English. In fact, I do not mind less than stellar English, but I do expect a certain minimum. The poster's reply was so riddled with mistakes that it deserved attention. Don't forget: The poster was responding to a parent querying whether the standard of English was up to scratch at TAS!

I accept that the manner could be interpreted as somewhat uncharitable. Hopefully, the uncharitable approach will help ensure greater accuracy from the original poster in future, but alas I see from the poster's reply that that might not be the case.

Rgds
R