@cornbreadninja Yes, you're right. I was just overthinking it. It would still be wrong. But you're right there wouldn't be any point in feeling sorry for the "victim" who doesn't care.
@Cerberus Most unique is not blocked for reasons of grammar but of sense. In contrast, it is a matter of grammar that blocks you from having a shoe size, shoer size, shoest size. It is clear that even though shoe is specifying a type of size, it cannot be an adjective. In the same way, determiners are blocked because of their word class. Do you then also consider articles to be a subtype of adjective? If so, I cannot think how. They don’t even go in the adjective slot in the NP.
@Cerberus One of the nice things about adjectives is that there are so many of them. If one doesn’t quite suit, you can usually find a synonym with slightly different shade of meaning. Determiners, however, have no synonyms. There is no synonym for my, an, the, this, that, etc. They are function words.
@Cerberus I stand corrected. Most possible cannot be a real superlative, because it is merely a periphrastic one not an inflectional one. Only the rarest forms are actual superlatives, since only they use inflection. Gosh, I learn so much from “linguists”.
> Authorities in Northern California made a snappy discovery during a routine probation check: An alligator-like reptile named "Mr. Teeth," who was apparently protecting a stash of marijuana. When Alameda County Sheriff's deputies entered the Castro Valley home on Tuesday, they not only found 34 pounds of marijuana valued at an estimated $100,000, but also the 5-foot-long caiman inside a Plexiglas tank guarding it in a bedroom.
Ah, you're all a bunch of pussies. Freaked out that we might lose our musty smell and silverfish. As if SE would seriously consider a change in site design. But you're all very PC. I'll give you that.
> Most determiners have been traditionally classed along with adjectives, and this still occurs: for example, demonstrative and possessive determiners are sometimes described as demonstrative adjectives and possessive adjectives respectively. However, modern theorists of grammar prefer to distinguish determiners as a separate word class from adjectives, which are simple modifiers of nouns, expressing attributes of the thing referred to.
> This distinction applies particularly in languages like English which use definite and indefinite articles, frequently as a necessary component of noun phrases – the determiners may then be taken to be a class of words which includes the articles as well as other words that function in the place of articles.
> (The composition of this class may depend on the particular language's rules of syntax; for example, in English the possessives my, your etc. are used without articles and so can be regarded as determiners, whereas their Italian equivalents mio etc. are used together with articles and so may be better classed as adjectives.)
> Not all languages can be said to have a lexically distinct class of determiners.
Interesting that you can have two words for excrement, one of which is more severe than the other but refers to the goods, while the "nicer" one indicates lack of quality.
@Sim I don’t find those possible duplicates very compelling on the question you closed. I do think it is a dupe, but just not of those. I wasn’t able to find the question I was thinking of that talked about a conjoined subject (not the term used there) getting a singular verb, so I went ahead and answered it. If I find the right dup, I’ll let you know. Maybe @Reg remembers.
It does sound weird. The tag question construction when formed from a clause with a [be] auxiliary or copula needs a subject pronoun to stand in. Not surprisingly, all the top hits in COCA are for the subject pronouns it, you, they, he, we, she, they. We also see expletive there showing up freque...
what is "it" referring to in this text: "But that didn't materialise, with manufacturers preferring to stick to LCD displays and the like for colour duties, leading Qualcomm to cancel its first full-colour eBook reader and go back to the drawing board. Some even believed that was it for colour E Ink."
Should I have asked such question on the main site? Or that would have got closed? I am getting into the habit of asking all my questions here in the chat room!
I think the other answers have done a good job of discussing this is it. Let me comment that a very similar expression,
That's it.
can indeed mean "this is the end." or "that is all there is."
In the idiom this is it, the word this can refer to what is about to happen, while in that's it,...
@Meysam I didn't say it was a beginner question. But it is a commonly known idiom that all native speakers will know, so I think this is typically a question that comes up when you're learning a language, so for ELL?
I don't see anything wrong with just saying That's it from me every day, but if OP wants to ring the changes he could alternate with I'm done.
I used to participate in regular "conference calls" with maybe 2-6 co-workers. When it seemed we'd covered everything, whoever was notionally in charge w...
But if people keep asking learning questions here, either many will be closed, or they will be answered here—and nobody will know that the other site is the best place to ask.
Like whether questions can be moved because those new users can't get in. I know Reg has commented on a bunch of recent questions that they belong on ELL, so once it's public there will probably be a steady stream for a while
I think the other answers have done a good job of discussing this is it. Let me comment that a very similar expression,
That's it.
can indeed mean "this is the end." or "that is all there is."
In the idiom this is it, the word this can refer to what is about to happen, while in that's it,...
How long will a private beta be up normally?
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…