| QUESTION |
Is this sentence correct?
" The universe comprises the earth ; the earth consists of seven continents, one of them is Asia , where it contains China in which you are living there. "
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Hong Kong  Sun, Oct 18, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
I've seen better. We have problems with the which's and where's. You might try this:
The universe comprises the earth; the earth consists of seven continents; one of these continents is Asia, which contains China, which is where you live.
This assumes you have to put everything into one sentence, for some reason. Also, it feels strange to use comprises without putting in more than one thing that it comprises -- "comprises the earth, along with everything else."
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| QUESTION |
Do you see any wrongs to correct in a sentence below?
Would you make a arrangement that I see my friends at the party which will be held next week?
Is it grammartically possible to say that?- especially a part of it," make a arrangement that", instead of "see to it that I see......
Thank you for your help.
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Chiba, Japan Sun, Oct 18, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I don't see anything really wrong with that sentence, except that I would change a arrangement to an arrangement. We might have written "Would you please arrange it so that I can see my friends at next week's party?". (Among other things, that would avoid that "which" clause.)
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| QUESTION |
Please, check grammar in the sentence below.
If the accident had happened when the car was used for private purposes, employee is also obliged to inform the company on the accident, and to submit all the necessary documents from appropriate instances.
Thank you very much.
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Espoo, Finland Sun, Oct 18, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
There's something not quite right about the verb tenses and -- unless we're using a kind of shorthand for purposes of writing a report or summary directions -- some of the articles might be different. I suggest something like the following:
If the accident happened when the car was being used for private purposes, the employee is also obliged to inform the company about the accident, [an unnecessary comma] and to submit all the necessary documents from appropriate instances ["from appropriate instances" completely loses me. I don't know what "instances" means.].
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| QUESTION |
How do I justify whether a paragraph is unified or not?
for eg. During natural disasters, deaths often result from the collapse of houses and other buildings. In many underdeveloped countries, these deaths are directly attributable to faulty construction. This is testified to by the fact than an earthquake
which flattens entire towns in underdeveloped countries only shakes a few buildings in developed ones. This is because, in the latter, planning has been done to protect areas susceptible to natural disasters. For instance, relevant laws are passed which either ban settlement in these areas or requre that rigid building codes govern construction. Safety is therefore guaranteed. The same cannot be said for many underdeveloped countries in which there are neither building codes nor settlement planning. People therefore build where they choose (the land's fertility being the deciding factor).
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Somewhere, Jamaica Sun, Oct 18, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| That paragraph seems to hold together pretty well, although it tries to do an awful lot of work. If you were writing an essay on this topic, it would lend itself to the development of several paragraphs, I suppose. If there's one sentence that doesn't seem to fit, oddly enough, it's the first one. That first sentence probably deserves its own paragraph -- perhaps with some statistics about the number of people who die, globally, in such disasters every year. This paragraph is really just about people dying because they live in structures that aren't build to withstand natural disasters -- and that happens in economically nondeveloped areas. If something doesn't fit under that umbrella, it needs to be in another paragraph.
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| QUESTION |
| I always get confused when I have to use the following words related to Traveling. The most confusable words are the nouns: trip, journey, travel, excursion. Can you please show me a difference between them with examples? It's quite an urgent matter and I
would appreciate it if you send me you send me your answer as soon as possible. Thank you.
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Pravia, Asturias, Spain Sun, Oct 18, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| "Travel" and "journey" can be verbs, although "travel" is certainly more commonly used. "Journey" suggests a more extensive bit of travel. An "excursion" would be not only lengthy but also quite involved -- in terms of planning, expense, luggage, etc. Probably the most common expressions among these words is to "take a trip" or simply to "travel" to another place. We do "journey across country," say, but it's a bit more formal. An "excursion" is usually to some place that's rather remote. I hope I haven't confused more than you already are. I recommend the online Webster's: WWWebster Dictionary, the World Wide Web edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
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| QUESTION |
Please answer the following questions.
- "Mount is used as part of the name of a mountain." Should "a" be put in front of"part of"? If not so why?
- How many expressions are there to use in responding to someone when they say "Thank you." to you for something you have done for them? For example,"You're welcome.","Not at all.",etc. In what occasion should these expressions be used?
- What is the meaning of "Come what may." and in what occasion should this expression be used?
- What is rhetoric?
Thank you very much.
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Bangkok, Thailand Mon, Oct 19, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
- Usage. We sometimes don't put an indefinite article in front of a fraction or fraction-like expression. "I gave him half my salary." "He used three-quarters of a tank."
- How many? I have no idea. "You're welcome" and "not at all" are quite polite, but not formal. Others, such as "No problem" and "You bet," are somewhat more informal or slangy. I wish we had a translation for per nada ("for nothing" in Spanish).
- "Come what may" means that whatever happens, happens, and there's not much we can do about it. It's kind of a throw-away phrase that people use without much thought, and it's probably wise to avoid it.
- Rhetoric: "The principles of finding and arranging ideas and for using language in speech or writing so as to achieve the writer's purpose in addressing his or her audience." Authority: The Little, Brown Handbook by H. Ramsay Fowler and Jane E. Aaron, & Kay Limburg. 6th ed. HarperCollins: New York. 1995. By permission of Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc.
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I have no idea, and I don't have the resources here to find out for you. I'll leave an e-mail icon here in case one of our users can come up with the answer.
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