Q&A - P1 English

[bluesclue]

bluesclue:

hi all,


A quick question on the conjunction whom to join sentences:

++++++++Example++++++
Anna spoke to an astronuat.
She met him at a Science exhibition.

=> Ans: Anna spoke to an astronaut whom she met at a Science exhibition.

+++++++++Question+++++++++
Gopal is my neighbour.
I play soccer with him.

My DD 's Ans: Gopal is my neighbour whom i play soccer with.
Teacher's ans: Gopal , whom I play soccer with, is my neighbour.

As you can see, DD 's answer is modelled after the example given above, and I agree that the teacher's answer is the better way to join the two sentences, but how to explain DD that her answer is not quite the way to say in English eventhoug it's grammatically \"correct\".?

TIA.

mother777:

hi,

another answer could be:

Gopal is my neighbour with whom i play soccer.

Thanks a lot mother777 for this elaboration ...
My concern here is that how I can explain why this deviation from the example given in the exercise is a better way of joining the sentences. One reason that i can think of is that DD's answer ended with the preposition \"with\". Maybe this is considered not acceptable in grammar?

[mother777]

Hi Bluesclue,


Yes, I think it is not correct to put a proposition in the end of sentence.

The definition of preposition is:
A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence.

Its better to keep the preposition in between the two sentences we are going to combine.

for eg as shown below:

1. I played tennis with a girl. She was a good player. (with whom, to whom)
2. I sat beside an old man. The old man was your grandfather. (beside whom, with whom)
3. I rode on John’ horse. John watched me closely. (on whose, with whose)
4. She received a letter from a girl. She knew the girl at school. (from whom, with whom)
5. I sent a gift to my sister. She received it yesterday. (to whom, from whom)

Answers

1. The girl, with whom I played tennis, was a good player.
2. The old man beside whom I sat was your grandfather.
3. John, on whose horse I rode, watched me closely.
4. She knew the girl at school from whom she received the letter.
5. My sister, to whom I sent a gift, received it yesterday.

I am not a tutor, but the above is just my understanding..
Hope the above examples help.

Which school your DD is in that she is getting such good questions in P1 english?

[nonKiasu]

mother777:

Hi,


I think the reason behind using 'are' is that word Police here refers to more than one person.

It would have been good it the question mentioned Policemen. Then the anwer would be quite obvious to the kids.

This is bit tricky indeed for young kids to understand.

I will teach this to my DD also, SA2 is coming soon

Thanks, mother777.

In the first place, I don't even understand why \"are\". I thot it should be \"is\" because either there is 1 policeman or a group, we shd use \"is\"??

[bluesclue]

mother777:

Hi Bluesclue,


Yes, I think it is not correct to put a proposition in the end of sentence.

The definition of preposition is:
A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence.

Its better to keep the preposition in between the two sentences we are going to combine.

for eg as shown below:

1. I played tennis with a girl. She was a good player. (with whom, to whom)
2. I sat beside an old man. The old man was your grandfather. (beside whom, with whom)
3. I rode on John’ horse. John watched me closely. (on whose, with whose)
4. She received a letter from a girl. She knew the girl at school. (from whom, with whom)
5. I sent a gift to my sister. She received it yesterday. (to whom, from whom)

Answers

1. The girl, with whom I played tennis, was a good player.
2. The old man beside whom I sat was your grandfather.
3. John, on whose horse I rode, watched me closely.
4. She knew the girl at school from whom she received the letter.
5. My sister, to whom I sent a gift, received it yesterday.

I am not a tutor, but the above is just my understanding..
Hope the above examples help.

Which school your DD is in that she is getting such good questions in P1 english?

Thanks again M777, I can see a pattern in the sentence structure, generally, the preposition \"with\" is not placed before the punctuation mark.

DD's school is RSS, in the east.

[micollh]

Hi all, All is fine or All are fine ?

[michyms]

micollh:

Hi all, All is fine or All are fine ?

All is fine. Similarly, everything is fine.

[micollh]

michyms:

micollh:

Hi all, All is fine or All are fine ?

All is fine. Similarly, everything is fine.

thanks ! confuse when i was asked is or are...i wrote all is fine too.. automatic mah.. then when they ask, i confused..they said all means many what.. i was like.. but we all along say all is fine.. so i ask experts here..

[mother777]

Hi,


actually both "All is fine" and "All are fine" are grammatically correct.

Just need to realize that "All is fine" will be answer if we refer to 1 single person.

"All are fine" will mean that we are talking about a group of people.

[mother777]

Sorry i don't want to confuse anyone. But all can be singular or plural based on its usage.


refer to website Rule 9 which clearly highlights when All is singular or when it is plural.

http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp

What we need to understand is in what context \"ALL\" is used.

[michyms]

mother777, thanks for your feedback.


I think generically, when the sentence doesn't have a noun, then we should probably stick to \"All is fine\".

But if it will be plural when the sentence is \"All the people are fine\" because now there is a plural noun.