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Old 06-15-2009, 03:49 AM   #121
H_TeXMeX_H
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The tress in this XYZ town have likely suffered from a hard winter.

You could use "the" in both places here, but one other thing "the" is used for is continuation. So if you start another sentence after this you would be referring to whatever "the" is pointing to.

The tress in this XYZ town have likely suffered from a hard winter. Their bark has disintegrated. (referring to the trees)
Tress in this XYZ town have likely suffered from the hard winter. It was colder than usual. (referring to the winter)
The tress in this XYZ town have likely suffered from the hard winter. (making one of the above comments here may be ambiguous, because you have not declared a single main subject)
 
Old 06-15-2009, 12:43 PM   #122
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Quote:
Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H View Post
The tress in this XYZ town have likely suffered from a hard winter.

You could use "the" in both places here, but one other thing "the" is used for is continuation. So if you start another sentence after this you would be referring to whatever "the" is pointing to.

The tress in this XYZ town have likely suffered from a hard winter. Their bark has disintegrated. (referring to the trees)
Tress in this XYZ town have likely suffered from the hard winter. It was colder than usual. (referring to the winter)
The tress in this XYZ town have likely suffered from the hard winter. (making one of the above comments here may be ambiguous, because you have not declared a single main subject)
Wow, thank you so much!
 
Old 02-27-2010, 02:32 AM   #123
frenchn00b
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What's the difference between:

Quote:
For childrens who cannot read good.
or
Quote:
For childrens who cannot read well.
?
What's better?
 
Old 02-27-2010, 03:02 AM   #124
Nylex
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The first is incorrect. Also, it should be "children" (since that is the plural of "child").

Edit: I hope there's also more to that sentence that you just haven't shown. If not, putting a full stop at the end of it makes no sense.

Last edited by Nylex; 02-27-2010 at 03:06 AM.
 
Old 02-27-2010, 07:04 AM   #125
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good = bon
well = bien
 
Old 02-27-2010, 08:43 AM   #126
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Hi, could somebody tell me what "ain't" mean?? I've met with that in book which i'm reading and i can't find what it means
 
Old 02-27-2010, 09:40 AM   #127
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That is a slang word for "isn't".
 
Old 03-12-2010, 09:03 AM   #128
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I saw the topic and i had to respond,since im swedish and even if we speak good english in general i often have too google spelling and just wanted to say thanks for thinking about us!!!
 
Old 03-12-2010, 09:16 AM   #129
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slackwaredanny View Post
I saw the topic and i had to respond,since im swedish and even if we speak good english in general i often have too google spelling and just wanted to say thanks for thinking about us!!!
So, what, I do too. Don't think everyone knows how to spell, even if we can speak well. English spelling really makes very little sense, and has few rules and many exceptions ... I wish they would change it, but I doubt they will. There was supposedly a bill that almost passed to make words be spelled as you hear them ... but it didn't pass.
 
Old 06-04-2010, 02:41 PM   #130
frenchn00b
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Shall we write:

Code:
(1) He brought the great camera and new phone.
or
Code:
(2) He brought the great camera and the new phone.
?
shall we repeat "the" always? Is it necessary?

Last edited by frenchn00b; 06-04-2010 at 02:42 PM.
 
Old 06-04-2010, 02:57 PM   #131
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Unless you are talking about a particular phone, we would normally say
Quote:
he bought a great camera and a new phone
If you had said
Quote:
Of the selection <camera> was great
then we could say "the great camera".
 
Old 06-04-2010, 03:21 PM   #132
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Yeah, adding "the" refers to a specific object, while "a/an" is any one of that object.

If someone had pointed out a specific camera and phone earlier, then you can use "the" to refer to these specifically. If they just bought any camera or any phone, you should use "a/an" because you have no clue exactly which camera or phone they bought.

Example:

Eariler:
A - Hey take a look at this new Nikon camera, it looks great, maybe I'll buy it.
B - If you want it, buy it.
A - I'll think about it.

Later:
B - So did you buy a camera ?

A:

Yeah, I bought the camera. (new Nikon)
Yeah, I bought a camera. (could be any camera)

Last edited by H_TeXMeX_H; 06-04-2010 at 03:24 PM.
 
Old 07-18-2010, 01:03 PM   #133
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Ok, since I started posting here, I haven't used "whom" once, and you are all probably shaking your fists at your monitors in anger. (Since we are (supposedly) nerds, I get this vision of Ross (Friends), correcting who/whom errors, in my head :P).

I came to think of it (again) as I was writing my last post:
<snip>..according to Hadiths, someone who get killed when...<snip>

I wasn't sure, and didn't want to look silly for trying to be sophisticated, so I played safe with "who", just like many native English speakers do, hehe..

I think whom is used when I'm referring to my self.
I.e. I recently had a vacation at my parents, whom I lived with the first 18 years of my life with.
and
I have to work more then I want to, because my boss, who is a jerk, won't employ a new guy.

Is this correct?
 
Old 07-18-2010, 02:45 PM   #134
jay73
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No, "who" is used when it acts as the subject of the subclause.

For example: "My boss, who is a jerk..."
What does "who" refer to? "My boss". If we replace "who" with its antecedent (= the word it refers to) we get:
"My boss is a jerk"
The subject of this sentence is "my boss" so we use "who".

Other example:
"My parents, whom I lived with the first 18 years of my life, ..."
What does "whom" refer to? To "My parents". So we replace whom with "my parents" and we get:
"I lived with my parents ..."
Here the subject of the sentence is not "my parents" but "I" so we use "whom".

Last edited by jay73; 07-18-2010 at 02:59 PM.
 
Old 07-18-2010, 03:31 PM   #135
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It's ok to never use whom, but you should know that when you listen to it, 'who' sounds out of place when used instead of 'whom'.
 
  


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