verb agreement - Which sentence is correct and why (is VS are)

"The only thing holding me back is the available colours."

or

"The only thing holding me back are the available colours."

It seems to me like a glitch either way. I slightly favour the second one though.

syntax - Why are these questions structured differently?

How many rooms does your apartment have?

How many rooms have carpeting?

I'm a native speaker of English teaching at a language school. Recently I was stumped by a question made by a student.
It was:

How come in the first sentence, the question is structured the "regular way" i.e. auxiliary (does) + present simple of the verb (have), whereas in the second sentence we don't use an auxiliary.

I have a feeling that it might be related to subject / object, but honestly I'm not sure. Any help would be appreciated.

ambiguity - Is the following sentence ambiguous?

Bob bought Anna's house.

Does this mean Bob bought a house from Anna, or Bob bought Anna's house for her, or both?

Answer

 Bob bought Anna's house.

The sentence doesn't reveal whether Anna's possession of the house occurred before or after the purchase you mention, so both is possible.

Either Bob bought the house and gave it to Anna,
Or Bob bought the house that up until then belonged to Anna.

How to distinguish and use the present perfect for the recent past?

I'm having trouble understanding and using the so-called “perfect of recent past” aspect on the present tense. I have three related questions about this which are in bullets, two here and one at the end of my post.

• Is recency the only reason to use the “perfect of recent past”, or should we use it strictly when giving a new or “hot” information?





• What exactly makes us choose to use the present tense with the perfect aspect added to it instead of using the past tense without any perfect aspect? I see that the present perfect is widely used for the recent past, especially in British English.

You can find some details about the classification of the sorts of uses to which the perfect aspect is applied to the present tense in English in these two articles:

Should these six sentences following be classifed as a resultative present tense with perfect aspect or as a present tense whose perfect aspect is used for the recent past?

1. I've found your passport. Here it is on the desk!


2. I've attached the file (Sentence is used in the content of an e-mail)


3. I'm looking for my pen. Have you seen it?


4. Oh, I've dropped my coin!


5. I've thought of something amazing! (Thought came to mind a short time ago)


6. Your passsword has been changed.

I’m leaning more towards the so-called “resultative present perfect” with regard to the six numbered examples I've just enumerated above.

• Could it be that there isn't even any clear-cut distinction when it comes to some contexts?

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Editor’s note

To stave off potential quibbles, we should note that for convenience’ sake, instructional materials for English Language Learners regularly use the term “present perfect tense” as shorthand for the combined tense–aspect–mood construction of the verb’s present tense (where “tense” means a time-based morphological inflection of a single word, never a multiword phrase) plus the perfective aspect (which is not properly speaking a “tense” per se).

Although this is different from how the word “tense” is used in (most) materials more oriented towards linguistics studies, this shorthand does little lasting harm and avoids complicating learners’ lives while they’re focusing on learning.

formality - Why are contractions considered unprofessional?

I've heard people specify not to use contractions in order to maintain a degree of professionalism. I've heard this mentioned by fellow students while in school as well.

I've never heard this with regards to online writing, thank goodness, but I don't understand why it's considered informal or low brow to use them.

It seems to me that not using them should be considered unprofessional. It's my understanding that language should be succinct, especially if you're trying to convey class or intellect. Avoiding contractions just seems like something only a child would do on their homework to add words to an essay.

Answer

Excerpt from Chicago Manual of Style:

Most types of writing benefit from the use of contractions. If used
thoughtfully, contractions in prose sound natural and relaxed and make
reading more enjoyable.

Excerpt from Modern American Usage:

The common fear is that using contractions can make the writing seem
breezy. For most of us, though, that risk is nil. What you gain should
be a relaxed sincerity—not breeziness.

More reading here.

grammatical number - What is the correct way to pluralize improper fractions?

Say, for example, I'd like to express that I have four complete six-slice pizzas and one with five out of six slices. Would I say "I have 29/6 pizzas"? "4 and 5/6 of a pizza" for mixed fractions?

Answer

Generally one uses only a fraction when expressing a ratio: 1/6 of a pizza, 1/3 of a pizza; it seems reasonable to extend this to improper fractions because you are comparing the amount of pizza you have to a "standard" size. However, using an improper fraction is discouraged in general and therefore would be somewhat jarring to use "naked", so I'd be inclined to write it out in some fashion: "I have twenty-nine sixths of a pizza" (longest, but best) or "I have 29 6ths of a pizza" (shortest and rather poor-looking, and can still easily cause a pause for interpretation) over "I have 29/6 of a pizza" (forces the reader to stop and figure out what you mean, which is just bad).

If you eliminate the improper fraction, it's no longer a ratio and therefore is best expressed as a plural: "I have 4 and 5/6 pizzas."

grammar - what is correct way to write this sentence? Ragen's and Connor's graduation (both boys are graduating from different schools

Both my boys will be graduating from two different schools and in an invitation I'm inviting everyone to "Ragen's and Connor's graduation". So I show possessive for with both boys and would the word "graduation" be singular or plural??