Q&A - P4 English

[grammartots]

t_mother of swc:

I am also very confused by this type of question 'She is shorter than she/her. He is taller than I/me. Which is it? And why?

Traditionally, the word than has been treated as a conjunction. So, if we expand the sentence you gave, we get sentence (1) below:

(1) He is taller than I am.

\"than\" joins \"He is taller\" and \"I am\", so it's considered a conjunction.

The \"to be\" verb \"am\" is ellipted (because it's implied, understood), so you get the more concise (2):

(2) He is taller than I.

In formal settings, the subjective I is the correct pronoun.

However, some writers prefer the objective forms (her and me in your examples) because they consider \"than\" a preposition.

When pronouns come after a preposition, they must be in the objective case:

(3) He is afraid of me. (not of I, of is a preposition)
(4) I was with her. (not with she, with is a preposition)

So, because some writers consider than a preposition, they use the objective pronouns after than:

(5) He is taller than me.

It's a never-ending debate between the two camps, with no clear winner in sight.

Having said that, I would caution that in formal contexts, choose the subjective forms after than i.e. she and I.

[grammartots]

teh_oh:

Hi,

Appreciate assistance on explaining the following questions:

1. Your brother appears to be shorter than ________.
Child's Ans: her
Ans Key: she

2. The warm clothing ________ us well and we will take _________ on our trip to Europe.
Child's Ans: suit .... them
Ans Key: suits .... it

3. He _________ me by surprise with his marriage announcement.
Child's Ans: caught
Ans Key: took

Thank you.....

For (3), \"caught\" seems to be fine too.

For (2), the word clothing is an uncountable noun referring to clothes considered as a group. It takes a singular verb just like furniture, so the plural \"suit\" is wrong.

However, the use of \"it\" to refer to clothing seems a bit odd me in the particular sentence. I would rewrite the sentence as:

(2a) The warm clothes suit us well and we will take them on our Europe trip.
(2b) The pieces of warm clothing suit us well and we will take them on our Europe trip. (\"pieces\" is plural, so we use the plural verb \"suit\" and the plural pronoun \"them\").

[AgonyMum]

Hi, please help-


1.It has been announced ___________the news.
Is the answer "in" or "on" ? My guess:on

2. good __________Math
Is the answer "in" or "at"? My guess: in

3. None of them __________happy.
Is the answer "is" or "are"? My guess: is

4. Not everyone ___________ happy.
Is the answer " is" or "are" My guess: is

TIA!

[bluesclue]

Dino mummy:

Hi

Qns: The gentleman _________ you were talking to was my former teacher.
MCQ: 1) who (2) whom (3) whose (4) which
Ans (1) is wrong ....

Both my boy and myself are stuck...dun noe why the ans he chose was wrong. Pls help to provide answer as well as explanation. Thanks.

Hi, for a explanation on when to use whom or who, you may check the following link:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-whom.aspx

[Jamesbond]

AgonyMum:

Hi, please help-


1.It has been announced ___________the news.
Is the answer \"in\" or \"on\" ? My guess:on

2. good __________Math
Is the answer \"in\" or \"at\"? My guess: in

3. None of them __________happy.
Is the answer \"is\" or \"are\"? My guess: is

4. Not everyone ___________ happy.
Is the answer \" is\" or \"are\" My guess: is

TIA!

My answers are

1. in
2. at
3. is
4. is

:imcool:

[AgonyMum]

Hi jamesbond,

Thanks for your response
We have some discrepancies regarding the first 2 questions.Can any other mummy or daddy explain the correct answers?
Thanks!

Jamesbond:

AgonyMum:

Hi, please help-

1.It has been announced ___________the news.
Is the answer \"in\" or \"on\" ? My guess:on

2. good __________Math
Is the answer \"in\" or \"at\"? My guess: in

3. None of them __________happy.
Is the answer \"is\" or \"are\"? My guess: is

4. Not everyone ___________ happy.
Is the answer \" is\" or \"are\" My guess: is

TIA!

My answers are

1. in
2. at
3. is
4. is

:imcool:

[grammartots]

bluesclue:

Dino mummy:

Hi

Qns: The gentleman _________ you were talking to was my former teacher.
MCQ: 1) who (2) whom (3) whose (4) which
Ans (1) is wrong ....

Both my boy and myself are stuck...dun noe why the ans he chose was wrong. Pls help to provide answer as well as explanation. Thanks.

Hi, for a explanation on when to use whom or who, you may check the following link:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-whom.aspx

It helps to rephrase the sentence to (which is the more formal version):

1) The gentleman to ____ you were talking was my former teacher.

Because to is a preposition, you need the objective pronoun \"whom\". Here's another example involving the preposition with:

2) With whom did you have dinner last night?

I've discussed this topic at greater length at http://grammartots.blogspot.com/2012/03/who-or-whom.html

[grammartots]

AgonyMum:

Hi jamesbond,

Thanks for your response
We have some discrepancies regarding the first 2 questions.Can any other mummy or daddy explain the correct answers?
Thanks!

Jamesbond:

[quote=\"AgonyMum\"]Hi, please help-

1.It has been announced ___________the news.
Is the answer \"in\" or \"on\" ? My guess:on

2. good __________Math
Is the answer \"in\" or \"at\"? My guess: in

3. None of them __________happy.
Is the answer \"is\" or \"are\"? My guess: is

4. Not everyone ___________ happy.
Is the answer \" is\" or \"are\" My guess: is

TIA!

My answers are

1. in
2. at
3. is
4. is

:imcool:

[/quote]For (1), because of the word \"announced\", the preposition on may be more appropriate - announced on the news means announced over a television or radio programme.

For (2), \"good at\" is a fixed phrase which means clever or skilful e.g. she is good at languages. I would use in as follows:

She did well in Mathematics last year.

According to http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv8.shtml, good in and good at are often interchangeable.

[Charnic]

Pls advise on the following synthesis and transformation.


May says : " We have eaten our lunch just now "
May said that …

Do we change just now to earlier on ? TIA

[AgonyMum]

Thanks Grammartots