The following symbols are used in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, p. xii:
* ungrammatical *This books is mine.
# semantically or pragmatically anomalous #We frightened the cheese.
% grammatical in some dialect(s) only %He hadn't many friends.
? of qu...
Anonymous
Does the chart look okay for everyone? Unfortunately, Stack Exchange is defective and lacks table formatting
In which scenario which words are suitable ? (there may be some mistakes with prepositions)
The police chief who conducts the investigation thinks that it is likely the
security crew was responsible / accountable/liable to/
culpable for the burglar at the bank because they all vanished a...
Here is the quote I'm wondering about:
Only by having enough knowledge is a person able to conceive great ideas.
Searching different sites did not help me to see whether using a "to be" structure in this Inversion is right. The examples I see are using intransitive verbs only.
I wan...
I think it'd be better if Murat pasted some dictionary definitions (so we could know that they looked them up and still couldn't understand the usages.)
Notice that the "normal" order for your first example is: "A person is able to conceive great ideas [only by having enough knowledge]." — F.E.1 hour ago
F.E. made it clear about the normal (or plain) alternative.
> A person is able to conceive great ideas only by having enough knowledge. Only by having enough knowledge [a person is] able to conceive great ideas. Only by having enough knowledge is a person able to conceive great ideas.
But maybe explaining it as an inversion in one step is easier to understand.
From Practical English Usage by Michael Swan -
We can use nowhere at the beginning of the sentence for the purpose of emphasis, and then auxiliary verb will precede the subject.
Example -
Nowhere had I less expected to see her than in my house.
In your example sentence, Nowhere in th...
Just to let you know. There was something happened last night, and I was a part of it. Anyway, that is about as much as I want to say. The rest, I think you may be able to guess.
@JimReynolds You sure have lived in the East long enough!
Then, it'd be better not to know it or be a part of it. It's not what you should be bothered or gotten involved with. I mean, to keep your mind in peace and calm.
Gah. I have been thinking for some days that I want to chat with you somewhere else. But only because I have a sort of business idea or partially-formed thoughts.
And I thought I might like to just share the gist of it with you and see if you have any thoughts.
Related: ell.stackexchange.com/a/54650/3281. As you appear to already know, an inversion can happen when we front an adverbial that is negative or limiting. Here is an example from the book in that post: Only after her death was I able to appreciate her. — Damkerng T.24 secs ago
I borrowed your "front an adverbial that is negative or limiting". Hope you don't mind. :-)
Oh! By doing that, I think I just made the question look more like a duplicate!
So I think, it's sort of like how the community chooses to strike a balance.
This is a great long answer about this subject but how does this help the OP understand why his text book is telling him that the correct choice is "The Chinese invented the printer." and the choice "The Chinese have invented the printer." is wrong (in this case). — Catija7 hours ago
About the comment above (from the Chinese invented the printer question), I think we can answer the OP along the lines of either the book was telling a baby rule; it's not incomplete, or the book was wrong.
@JimReynolds Hah! I think their answers/comments are useful, too.
Consider:
Some "for + nouns" are adjectival prepositional phrases; others are adverbial prepositional ones, but I am not sure which is which in these following examples:
The pension plans involve very little risk for employers.
A bank creates a reserve for loan losses.
How do invest...
I know what wee bonnie lass means, but my question is can we use it for kids?
I heard that it can only be used when complimenting a girl, as in boys use it, but I may be mistaken.
By the way, I've just watched the later parts of The Railway Man. I didn't know that it's a great movie! Coincidentally, it's about two men during WW II, one having been holding his anger, hatred, and grudge (which was reasonable) for so long. After they resolved their matters, it was a good ending in the end.
@JimReynolds It's the first time I've ever heard the three words being used as one!
"The Chinese invented the printer."
Statement of historical fact.
"The Chinese have invented the printer."?
Saying it that way implies it just happened, like you'd say "The Chinese have invaded our moon base!". As discussed in comments, you can get away with this usage in reply to a q...
What was invented was the printing press. Two kinds, I think.
The following symbols are used in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, p. xii:
* ungrammatical *This books is mine.
# semantically or pragmatically anomalous #We frightened the cheese.
% grammatical in some dialect(s) only %He hadn't many friends.
? of qu...
In which scenario which words are suitable ? (there may be some mistakes with prepositions)
The police chief who conducts the investigation thinks that it is likely the
security crew was responsible / accountable/liable to/
culpable for the burglar at the bank because they all vanished a...
Here is the quote I'm wondering about:
Only by having enough knowledge is a person able to conceive great ideas.
Searching different sites did not help me to see whether using a "to be" structure in this Inversion is right. The examples I see are using intransitive verbs only.
I wan...
From Practical English Usage by Michael Swan -
We can use nowhere at the beginning of the sentence for the purpose of emphasis, and then auxiliary verb will precede the subject.
Example -
Nowhere had I less expected to see her than in my house.
In your example sentence, Nowhere in th...
Consider:
Some "for + nouns" are adjectival prepositional phrases; others are adverbial prepositional ones, but I am not sure which is which in these following examples:
The pension plans involve very little risk for employers.
A bank creates a reserve for loan losses.
How do invest...
I know what wee bonnie lass means, but my question is can we use it for kids?
I heard that it can only be used when complimenting a girl, as in boys use it, but I may be mistaken.
"The Chinese invented the printer."
Statement of historical fact.
"The Chinese have invented the printer."?
Saying it that way implies it just happened, like you'd say "The Chinese have invaded our moon base!". As discussed in comments, you can get away with this usage in reply to a q...
