If you are at a bus stop, and see a bus coming, which version would you say, 1 or 2?
I see a bus come.
I see a bus coming.
If it is #2, then what does #1 mean exactly?
@AmD I'm the downvoter. I downvoted this answer because of the tone This is silly in most situations implies. One thing that we all should not forget is that We'd recommend you to book your flight early is from a reputable dictionary. However, I'm more than willing to retract my downvote if this answer is edited to state something along the lines "This is silly in American English" instead. — Damkerng T.28 mins ago
Some more links: “Recommend you to” vs. “recommend that you” (The accepted answer says "the variant with to is incorrect"; the top voted answer tries to interpret I recommend you to ... in the way that I think is unlikely.) This web page clearly says that it's a mistake, "In natural English, we do not use the structure recommend somebody to do something." — Damkerng T.15 mins ago
... This best answer in this Yahoo! Answers thread says "I recommend you to go there" just sounds stupid in English. Even a native UK English speaker says "It doesn't sound quite right in UK English at least". But we can find this construction of recommend in OED1, 7c. Though all evidence seems to suggest that the usage is fading out, to say that it's incorrect is an overstatement, in my humble opinion. — Damkerng T.6 mins ago
... You can also check out the results I found in various dictionaries in our chat log here: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/22018048#22018048. To sum it up, Merriam-Webster doesn't mention this usage; Dictionary.com (which is based on Random House Unabridged Dictionary doesn't mention it); Wiktionary doesn't mention it; but Oxford Dictionaries has several of its examples; Macmillan also has it. Practical English Usage by Michael Swan also mentions it (in 283). Mark Liberman also used it on Language Log. — Damkerng T.49 secs ago
I wish I could go back and fix some grammar errors up there.
But those errors are not that serious (I think and I hope). Now I can move on to other questions.
@MaulikV First of all, congrats on being the moderator of your Google Plus community. However, taking a quick look, I can see a lot of questionable things there. (For example, I've seen non-native speakers using the phrase 'centered around'. Whoa! How can be something 'centered around'. What actually they mean is 'centered ON'. Avoid blunders, be respected! :) -- It's 'must-to-read'. I had a debate with some native speakers once when they advised my 'must-have' gadget to 'must-to-have' gadget.) Would you mind if I posted questions here, and linked to your page? — Damkerng T.6 mins ago
Nothing much. I was clearing up my old tabs and saw Maulik mentioned his community on Google Plus. I took a quick look, and saw something I think not quite right which could be good questions here.
For example, 'must-to-read' sounds very weird to me.
Anything is 'yes' to make all Asians (especially Indians) becoming 'learned' in this language. What is your plan, btw? @DamkerngT. Also, I did not get what you meant by 'questionable' thing over there. Is there anything wrong, if yes, please become a member and comment/correct it. That's free! :) — Maulik V23 mins ago
I think that doesn't really mean "Yes! Go ahead!".
Just think of "Hell yeah" and "Damn right" as fixed phrases. They permit a little variation, but not much. There's no need to think of semantic reasons for picking one word or the other
"We saw you and him."
If I change the above sentence to passive voice, which one of the following would be correct ?
"He and you were seen by us."
"You and he were seen by us."
How do you pronounce unknown acronyms (e.g. GUID) and why? I often pronounce each character as separate syllables, but it might be due to it's foreign language.
I see a bus come.
I see a bus coming.
When you say I see a bus come, it means the bus has already come, and now stopped at the stand. When you say I see a bus coming, it means the bus is on its way to the stop, progressing.
We saw Kim leave the bank.
We saw Kim leaving the b...
By the way, the mentioning of pronouncing an unknown word reminds me that I asked snailboat a few days ago how she would pronounce Zombeavers, and though she picked to stress the first syllable, she said that the second syllable is also possible.
@unarist I think people usually read those acronyms the way the ones who created them pronounce them.
@Damkerng )) 1) Dictionary entries are kept by ordinary people and regularly updated but not every second (who knows how often updates occur ) as opposed to daily English in real life 2) As for the criteria, you gather opinions from ordinary people. The more, the better. Then you make a conclusion based on the majority. That's all! — AmD4 mins ago
sigh
I hope they won't write "Its true.", "Between he and she", "Between two of they", etc.
That is really interesting...and yes it's fair to me too, but it is hard to believe that a dictionary is incorrect considering the research work before writing a dictionary entry.
nods -- The problem with that pattern (recommend someone to do something) is that it's declining, I think. Its acceptability is extremely low among American speakers, from what I've observed.
I've made a couple of edit suggestions on a particular question and commented between them to try to explain, but both edits were rejected by the asker with the custom reason, "Why I need to remove [the] answer?". Is there anything more I can do to fix this?
I recommend you to define those parameters beforehand.
I recommend that you define those parameters beforehand.
Are both sentences grammatically correct? If yes, do they mean the same thing? If yes, which one should I use?
I am not a native speaker, so I don't want to say anything against Hellion said. But something is atrange about his explanation. I can point it out from the point of view of grammar
Hellion's explanation seems to say he considered you as the subject of the infinitive clause, but we know that if we add the subject of a infinitive clause we need to add for before the subject.
Hellion pointed out the difference in these sentences :
> I recommend that you define those parameters beforehand
and
> I recommend you to define those parameters beforehand
But the answerer in ELL pointed out
> We'd recommend you to book your flight early.
and
> We'd recommend to you to book your flight early.
I once used wordreference.com forum before joining here. That is a good site, but they don't explain the way it is explained here :-) but that is also a very good forum, and lots of good native speakers. That site also helped me a lot.
I checked the thread of that forum. One thing is obvious. it's a BrE and AmE difference,, notice the answerer's native language. And you can make a guess.
@DamkerngT. yes, ever since I joined here, and made myself comfortable here, I don't feel like going anywhere else :-) the explanation here is by far the best in my experience.
I think I found the answer to recommend thing! It's AmE vs. BrE indeed.
I just need to read that post on WordReference through to the end.
> recommend someone to do somethingRecommend (that)someone do something: This British construction corresponds to an American mandative subjunctive; its oldest date in the OED is 1856. The construction is entered without comment in LDOCE. <Mrs Barefoot . . . would certainly recommend younger women to look ahead.>1993 Feb. 1Times12/4
I think it's rather obvious that the main entry is recommend someone to do something and the book annotates it with Recommend (that)someone do something as the equivalent construction.
Anonymous
Oh! Google Books doesn't have anything but a partial bibliography and the front cover!
I've made a couple of edit suggestions on a particular question and commented between them to try to explain, but both edits were rejected by the asker with the custom reason, "Why I need to remove [the] answer?". Is there anything more I can do to fix this?
@M.A.Ramezani You could say the choice of complements confuses them. Does refer take the letter as a direct object, or does it take the preposition phrase to the letter as a complement?
Which one is true?
He had walked there on foot.
or
He had gone there on foot.
Since 'walk' means 'to move or go somewhere by putting one foot in front of the other on the ground [Oxford Dictionary]', is it true to use it with 'on foot'?
I'm referring to the post "refer the letter x refer to the letter"
The tags are of the vaguest kind: grammar word-usage sentence-construction phrase-usage. I suggest to remove all these vague tags and replace them with verb-construction. The problem here is not grammar (a very large area). Word-...
So Germany is gonna be the only place where it's called something different...
Anonymous
> Fanta originated as a result of difficulties importing Coca-Cola syrup into Nazi Germany during World War II due to a trade embargo.[2] To circumvent this, Max Keith, the head of Coca-Cola Deutschland (Coca-Cola GmbH) during the Second World War, decided to create a new product for the German market, using only ingredients available in Germany at the time, including whey and pomace – the "leftovers of leftovers", as Keith later recalled.
Anonymous
16:52
> The name was the result of a brief brainstorming session, which started with Keith's exhorting his team to "use their imagination" (Fantasie in German), to which one of his salesmen, Joe Knipp, immediately retorted "Fanta!"[3]