@userr2684291 well, regarding his claim that insistence can occur only in two construction, I would say it might happen that he made the claim hastly, while writing the mail.
@DamkerngT. nods actually I specifically asked him about this problem. And he replied that he still thinks it's incorrect. No reason. Lexical thing, is what he could say at max. I replied him with my findings, let's see what he replies or if my reply at all come under his notice.
What I mean by "my findings" is the apparent use of insistence in such constructions on magazines, newspaper or spoken registers :-)
I am attaching a link https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2031/are-there-any-simple-rules-for-choosing-the-definite-vs-indefinite-vs-none-a and request you to go through RegDwight's answer. He says in many cases where the indefinite article 'a' is used we can replace it by 'any'.
Co...
Well, RegDwight's answer says in many cases we can replace 'a' with 'any'. In the beverage example if we replace 'a' with 'any' then it applies to all beverages. Isn't it?
@iamRR When you can replace something with something else in many places, it doesn't necessarily mean they're identical, but that they function similarly
You can replace "apple" with "orange" in basically every sentence "apple" can appear in. Does it mean they mean the same?
@M.A.R. Suppose a sentence is :- Banks are financial institutions where a lender meets a borrower.
Here in place of 'a' if we put 'any' then i guess the meaning remains the same
Now take another example :- 'Visit this restaurant again and you will get a discount on a beverage'. Here if we put 'any' in place of 'a' then will the meaning change or will it remain the same ?
So the sentence "Visit this restaurant again and you will get a discount on a beverage" and the sentence "Visit this restaurant again and you will get a discount on beverages" are same in meaning. Did i get it right ?
@M.A.R. Suppose someone asks a question - Why do you want to join this organisation ? The reply comes : "I want to join this organisation because I'm keen to mentor students."
If i tweak the reply as : "I want to join this organisation because I'm keen to mentor a student".
Consider another sentence :- What's this initiative all about ? This initiative tries to help students achieve their aim. Vs This initiative tries to help a student achieve his/her aim.
Here in the latter sentence does 'a student' applies to all students or not?
I've heard/read/seen both "look at" and "look to" (and "look up at" and "look up to").
Is there a difference between the two? When should I use one over the other?
@iamRR am I correct that putting also in different places actually isn't wrong but gives different emphasis to different parts? While the option 2 is the most conventional, i.e. to the adverb between the noun and the verb, the others do not look to me they are wrong, but I could ALSO be wrong
@nbro It's much harder to analyze usage, because you can't know what everyone feels about every word and where in the sentence people are more likely to put the adverb
And it's kinda case-by-case
But the base assumption is that: Don't interrupt constituents, and you'd be fine
Well, I would say that, e.g., "however" is usually used at the beginning. Why? It's because it introduces a contrasting sentence and hence it's logically more appropriately used there.
I've seen "also" being used also at the beginning of a sentence (maybe followed by a comma), but I think words like "furthermore" or "moreover" would be more appropriate, at least while writing...
moreover is even more formal than furthermore, if I'm not mistaking
Just to give you a very trivial example, using always the (correct) punctuation makes it seem that you're writing very formally and that you want to respect all grammatical, syntatical rules, etc.
In here I tried to edit the question, mainly to remove the grammar:tag and add some other tag, but the way the question is asked, it's hard to add any tag.
I can only guess if the OP thinks that who is part of a relative clause, and has problem placing the antecedent to any gap he might have imagined. Not very sure. If only he could have provided a little more context.
I'm wrong; I checked with a dev and that check is enabled everywhere. The similar-titles notice has been brought up before, but I'm being told that right now the dev team doesn't know if it's feasible or not. (On the bright side, eventually we'll run out of non-descriptive permutations of "is this grammatically correct".) — WendiKidd ♦Apr 24 '14 at 17:15
Unfortunately, @Man_From_India, the current state of technology and developers' faculties doesn't allow for such a thing as warning against certain words in a question's title.
@Man_From_India Sorry for being a bit passive-aggressive, haha, I'm just trying to ridicule the assertion that it's impossible to accomplish, even though it's so simple. It would be okay if they said they'd do it in the future, but saying it's not possible is just plain stupid.
I can’t for the life of me figure out where to use a and where to use the — and where there is no article at all. Is there a simple rule of thumb to memorize?
The standard rule you always hear:
“If a person knows which item you are talking about then use "the"
. . . doesn’t clear things u...
This initiative tries to help a student realise his/her potential. This sentence refers to an unspecified student or does this sentence refer to all students ?
So if i rewrite the sentence as :- This initiative tries to help any student realise his/her potential. Is this sentence similar to the previous sentence where 'a student' is used ?
> And who better to celebrate with you than Mickey and Minnie, right? > Who better to speak about ethics than someone who was out there and lived it ... > Who better to help find two kidnapped children than former abductee Kick Lannigan? > ...
@M.A.R. As you say that when you use 'a guy' it means that you have someone in mind. Now look at the previous sentence "This initiative tries to help a student realise his/her potential". In this sentence does 'a student' mean that I have someone in mind ?
I think you're either being deliberately obtuse, or don't want to accept the answers provided. If it's the latter, don't ask anymore. If it's the former, at least find new examples so it's interesting.
@M.A.R. So in the sentence "Because I'm keen to mentor a student at your institute" and the sentence "Because I'm keen to mentor students at your institute" Do these sentences mean the same ?
@M.A.R. Really sorry for pushing you people too much. Even I'm feeling ashamed of myself right now that such an easy thing I'm unable to grasp.
I guess today the way @M.A.R. explained i think I'm quite close to understanding what's right and which one to use under different contexts. I really appreciate your help.
@iamRR it's not an easy thing, but asking isn't the only way to learn things
You keep ignoring the most important advice: Move on with your studies, and when you get a good grasp of what the language is like, the understanding will come itself
@userr2684291 Because @M.A.R. said "If the number matters, it becomes one unspecified thing. It's not rocket science And if the number doesn't matter, it might become one unspecified thing, or refer to all of them in general"
@userr2684291 Okay, so if that is the case then in the sentence "This initiative tries to help a student realise his/her petential" here also 'a student' should mean one student. Isn't it ?
@iamRR No. It means one, but the meaning is extended to all students. It could mean "just one, but any one student", but initiatives usually help more than one person/whatever.
@userr2684291 So the sentence "This initiative tries to help students realise their potential' and the sentence "This initiative tries to help a student realise his/her potential' mean the same. Is that what you saying ?
@userr2684291 As MAR says that if in the sentence number doesn't matter then it might become either one specified thing or it might refer to all of them. So in the initiative example where 'a student' is used, since here number doesn't matter so it refers to all students but even then there are some very slight chances that it could refer to some unspecified student. Isn't it?
So using a singular 'a student' in the initiative example leaves a doubt that it might refer to an unspecified student. Although the chances of referring to all students in general are more.
But in the sentence if we use plural i.e; "This initiative tries to help students realise their potential" here 'students' refer to all students in general. So don't you think that it's always safe to use plural in these cases ?
So I guess the sentence "This initiative tries to help a student realise his/her potential" and the sentence "This initiative tries to help students realise their potential" are not the same. They mean much the same but not exactly the same. Right?
Singular one also talks about students in general but in singular one there is a possibility that it is referred to a student that I'm thinking of at the time of speaking.
@iamRR Just so it's clear: in isolation, the sentence is ambiguous because it can be interpreted in more than one way. In the right context, the sentence is unambiguous.
The person uttering the sentence has only one meaning in mind.
The reader/listener will know what they're talking about if they're aware of the rest of the context.
There is a possibility that a student in that sentence refers to just one student the person uttering the sentence has in mind.
I am attaching a link https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2031/are-there-any-simple-rules-for-choosing-the-definite-vs-indefinite-vs-none-a and request you to go through RegDwight's answer. He says in many cases where the indefinite article 'a' is used we can replace it by 'any'.
Co...
I've heard/read/seen both "look at" and "look to" (and "look up at" and "look up to").
Is there a difference between the two? When should I use one over the other?
There are many famous people I don't know who they are.
I heard this sentence on the radio, but is it a grammatical sentence?
I can’t for the life of me figure out where to use a and where to use the — and where there is no article at all. Is there a simple rule of thumb to memorize?
The standard rule you always hear:
“If a person knows which item you are talking about then use "the"
. . . doesn’t clear things u...
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