There was an ad on telly I saw, saying
Relax, knowing your home is safe
Is this a complete sentence that is grammatically correct? Could this go in an essay? What is the technical word for "knowing"? I know it's a verb. Would you call a present continuous verb and that's it?
What about this sentence
Become part of this website, exploring new worlds and games
Is this an okay sentence?
Let's say I'm asking people about characteristics of their ideal workplace.
"Ideally, how old would the company you work for be?"
"Ideally, how many people would also work at the company you work for?"
Personally, this sounds rather awkward. I'd attribute it to the item in question being "the company you work for" as it ends with "for". Any clean-sounding, easily understandable alternatives here?
I was thinking about "How old would your ideal company be?" or "How long would your ideal company have been in business?" but these don't really convey the fact that the person would actually be employed there.
Answer
I've never liked ending sentences with prepositions, whether it's an unfortunate idea or not. I'd rework the first one to be:
Ideally, how old would the company for which you work be?
^ this syntax being how I generally avoid ending with a preposition.
As for the second one,
Ideally, how many other people would work at the company for which you work?
Let's say I have a word like unhappy.
The "un" is called the prefix. What is the other bit called?
Answer
Root noun [C] (of a word):
- The root of a word is its most basic form, to which other parts, such as affixes, can be added:
The root of the word "sitting" is "sit".
Cambridge Dictionary
For example:
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were having a good time"
This is apparent by the context that the person is having a great time, but why say If I didn't know any better?
Say I'm having a conversation and somebody besides me asks "you didn't go to the movie", so usually I would say "no" even though they are correct.
Is there a name for this?
Any more information?
I'm in the USA if that helps
Usually when a word starts with a vowel, we will use "an" before it. But for union, it is "a union" not "an union." It is not explained in the previously mentioned a vs an why union is an exception. It explains how to know exceptions for h like hotels.
Also are there any exceptions for the opposite side, where there should be an "a" but is an "an" instead? (Unfortunately I have no example of a case like this.)
Answer
The a/an-rule is based on pronunciation, not on spelling. Though the word union is spelt beginning with a vowel, the u is pronounced "you":
/ˈjuː.ni.ən/
So, this is why it is accompanied by a rather than an and this is also the case for many other words starting with a vowel, have a look at these:
- a user
- a European
but:
- an ultimatum
- an orange
Note that there are words which start with an h and when that h is not pronounced, these words also go with an:
an honor
However, if this h is pronounced, then the article used is a:
- a hill
- a heathen
Here's a short but clear article that explains the usage of a/an: Articles: A versus An
I've been told by a person that the sentence below is incorrect grammatically and it does not make any sense. Specifically, that person told me that the part ''could do'' is wrong. ''Could do'', for him, should rather be replaced by ''had'' to make sense.
Pretending to be a beggar on the street was the only way such a shameless individual as you could do.
As I'm not a native speaker, I'm not sure whether this sentence is correct or not grammatically? Therefore, I'd like to ask some native speaker here about whether the part ''could do'' is correct and whether the whole sentence is correct ? thanks
Answer
If you replace way by thing, then your sentence is grammatical and makes sense:
Pretending to be a beggar on the street was the only thing such a
shameless individual as you could do.
This works because you can do things but you cannot do ways. For example,
Begging was the only thing (that) she could do.
?Begging was the only way (that) she could do.
However, you can have ways. So your friend's suggestion:
Pretending to be a beggar on the street was the only way such a
shameless individual as you had
is grammatical and makes sense