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Al Blanco |
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Russia, Moscow |
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Monday, October 26, 2009 |
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Monday, November 16, 2009 5:32:00 AM |
38
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My grammar book gives a standard example of using 'a'.
A cat is a small domestic animal
But then it explains that 'the' can be used in referring to the class as a whole, and especially in distinguishing one class from another:
The housewife has a harder life than the office-worker.
The cat has been a domestic pet for thousands of years.
The book explains that this pattern is commonly used when a GENERALISATION is made about a whole class, whether of people, animals, plants or inanimate objects.
I cannot understand it. Why 'The cat has been a domestic pet for thousands of years' is a generalization and 'A cat is a small domestic animal' is not??
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Articulate Dreamer, Nibbles, thanks a lot.
Articulate Dreamer, I wouldn't say that this grammar book is bad. I think that the author of it, A.S.Hornby, is one of the best. The only problem is that it was written 60 years ago :)
I have modern ones too, but none of them draws a good distinguish between constructions which are used in American and British English. Plus, I believe that one should know archaic constructions too – they are used in many old good books- but, of course, it is always interesting to know whether a construction is obsolete or not.
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My grammar book says that 'may/might' may be used after verbs 'trust' and 'hope'.
I trust that the proposal may meet with approval. I hope she may succeed
I trust that the proposal might meet with approval. I hope she might succeed
An American told me that Americans would use 'will' instead of 'may/might' in these sentences. Is such using OK in British English nowadays or this is obsolete in Britain too?
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AJC, Shaoley, thanks a lot! Actually, nobody asks me anything in English, so I cannot use it in practice :) I just would like to know shades of meanings typical for British and American English. And, of course, which patterns are obsolete or formal.
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'Might I borrow you pen?' – 'Yes, you might'
My grammar book says that such an answer expresses some unwillingness. Is 'might' in use in this context in the modern English?
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RuthP, TB, Shadowstar, thanks a lot!
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May you be very happy!
How does it sound for a native speaker? Is it official, literary, obsolete?
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wanda wrote:Well, first of all, I really don't know why you named your post like this. The sentence you're asking about is in a CONDITIONAL mood. It's wrong becasue you used 2nd conditional whereas in most of the cases you use 1st conditional while talking about future. So, the correct version is: It it rains tmrrw, I'll stay at home. Good luck.
I think that the conditional mood is a form of the subjunctive mood. Many grammar books don't distinguish them.
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Jyrkkä Jätkä wrote:
No. A _ car is subject, blue is it's attribute. Stopped is predicate, at the gate is adverbial.
That saying, I'm native Finnish, not English.
I don't think that it is that simple.
http://forum.thefreedictionary.com/postst4360_What-is-the-predicate-.aspx
And according to classical British grammar the modifier ('a blue') is definitely a part of the subject. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_(grammar)
I wonder is it so everywhere in English-speaking countries.
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Jyrkkä Jätkä wrote:A (simple) clause consists of a subject and a predicate. The subject is typically a noun phrase, though other kinds of phrases (such as gerund phrases) work as well, and some languages allow subjects to be omitted. The predicate is a finite verb phrase: a finite verb together with zero or more objects, zero or more complements, and zero or more adverbials.
Yes, some languages indeed allow subjects to be omitted – Russian, for example. :)
Let's compare.
[A blue car] [stopped at the gate]
THE PREDICATE
Russian – 'stopped' is the predicate. ('at the gate' is the adverbial).
English – a) 'stopped at the gate' is the complete predicate b) 'stopped' is the predicate (by some grammarians)
THE SUBJECT
Russian – 'car' is the subject.
English - a) 'a blue car' is the subject b) does anybody consider 'car' as a subject or only 'a blue car' can be considered as the predicate in this sentence?
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