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Read clear grammar explanations and example sentences to help you understand how adverbials are used. Then, put your grammar knowledge into practice by doing the exercises.
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hi,
does the word of discuss take " about" as its preposition?
#the weather is a good topic to discuss about in uk.
#Is the weather a good topic to discuss about?
are any of these statement correct?
thx
Sir,
This occurred or happened one year to the day of my marriage.
Does it mean this happened one year after the day of my marriage or one year before the day of my marriage ?
Hi SonuKumar,
It means it happened exactly one year AFTER the day of your marriage. I can see why 'to' seems to mean 'before', but it doesn't mean that in this phrase. :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
In a sentence"I listen to a song",Can we say that "to a song" is a adverbial phrase or not.Would you explain me.Sir?
Hello Swan Htet MyInt,
In this sentence the verb 'listen' is followed by a preposition ('to') and an object ('a song'). There is no adverbial phrase here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Sir,
I'm going to my college.
I'm already running late.
Now in the way a friend of mine tries to stop me and I say I can't stop as I'm already late. If I stay here, I will be even more late because of you.
Or I will be even later because of you.
Are these last two sentences correct ?
Could I also say I'll be late even more because of you ?
Hello SonuKumar,
Yes, both of those first two sentences are fine. The last one you ask about is a little awkward -- I'd use 'even later' instead of 'late even more'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Sir,
And I could also say "because of you I will reach my college even more late or even later, right ?
Hello SonuKumar,
This sentence with 'even later' is OK, but not with 'even more late'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Sir,
I'm running late.
Can I also say "I'm getting late".
I'll be late.
Can I also say "I'll get late".
Can we use the verb 'get' with late, if not why not ?
Hello SonuKumar,
No, 'I'm getting late' is not correct. We do say 'It's getting late', but I can't think of a situation when a pronoun that refers to a person (e.g. 'I', 'you', 'she', etc.) could be used this way.
I'm afraid we don't say 'I'll get late' either. Instead we say 'I'll be late' or 'I'm going to be late'.
I'm afraid I can't really explain why the forms you asked about are not correct; we just don't say these things in standard British (or American) English.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Sir,
The earlier you sleep at night
The earlier you will wake up in the morning.
The earlier you will sleep at night the earlier you will wake up in the morning.
Are these both correct or is only the first one correct ?
Hello again SonuKumar,
You need to use the verb 'go to sleep' here rather than just 'sleep'. Also, the sentence is functioning in the same way as a conditional with 'if', so a present form is needed in the first clause rather than 'will':
The correct phrasing here is as follows:
~ The earlier you go to sleep at night, the earlier you'll wake up in the morning.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Sir,
You will wake up as early as you sleep.
The earlier you will sleep the earlier you will wake up.
Do these sentences mean the same thing ?
And are these correct ?
Hello SonuKumar,
The first sentence is not correct. The second also is incorrect, but you could correct it as follows:
~ The earlier you go to sleep, the earlier you will wake up.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevi,
There is no way to tell from the sentence alone whether it's meant to be adjectival or adverbial. In this case, it probably doesn't make a difference. Headlines in news items are often like this, but if you read the article or listen to the report, it usually becomes clear which is meant.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello elsa78,
In the vast majority of cases, the context should make this clear. If there's a specific case you'd like to ask us about, please feel free to do so.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Peter Chin,
As I understand it, 'think' is intransitive here, but I'm not sure how I'd label the function of the prepositional phrase. This is a great question for an in-depth syntax course, but I'm afraid we don't generally go into this much detail on our site since our main purpose is to help people learn to use English.
I'd suggest two resources for you. The first is a sentence parser. You can find one here, but there are others that I'm sure you can find by doing an internet search for 'sentence parsing' or something similar. The second is the English Language and Usage Stack Exchange, where there are loads of details about English syntax and you can ask questions.
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Salum Hilali,
It's an interesting question! Both lion and giraffe are countable, and a pride of lions and a trio of giraffes would be the normal forms to use. I can't be sure why the photographer didn't use those forms. It could be a language or typing mistake, or alternatively it could be to create an uncountable meaning of lion and giraffe (meaning a group of them, without considering the animals individually).
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Tluangtea,
Could you please give us an example of what you're talking about?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Tluangtea,
I'm not sure what you mean by 'double adverbs', but if you are asking if it is possible to use two consecutive adverbs in a sentence then the answer is yes:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Yigido,
In some contexts -- for example, in a description of a process -- they all mean pretty much the same thing. We generally try to avoid repeating the same adverbial too much.
In general, you could use any one of them in a blank, but I can't say for sure without knowing the specific context.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SonuKumar,
'Across' here means from one side to the other. I'm not sure how else you would say it other than 'from one side to the other', but it would be strange not to use the word 'across' which is clear and succinct.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Yigitcan,
The position of adverbs in sentences in English is quite flexible. Generally, the adverb comes before the verb rather than after. Where there is an auxiliary verb, the adverb comes before the main verb (after the auxiliary verb.
For your examples, all of these are correct options:
With other examples there may be more options. The adverb can come at the start of the sentence, for example, especially if it is an adverb of time (yesterday, earlier etc).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Timmy,
I think the main difference is that in school is more common in US English, while at school is preferred in most contexts in UK English.
In terms of meaning/use, I think in UK English in school tends to mean that a person attends school (i.e. is a pupil), while at school tends to mean that the person is physically there:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nagie23
Yes, though please note that it's 'sort of' (or 'kind of'), not 'short of'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Bharati,
Yes, all of those sentences are fine, though very prescriptive grammarians might insist on Fewer than 40 rather than less than 40 to avoid using less with a countable noun. To be honest, though, it is very common to use less in this way, especially in modern English.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Bharati,
Phrases like these, and similar ones such as never mind and still less, are conjunctions.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Bharati,
Yes, I would say so. If you look the phrases up in a good dictionary then you'll see that they are classified as conjunctions:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/still%20less
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/never%20mind
There are so many conjunctions in English when phrases are included that it's well nigh impossible to list them all. Most grammar books for learners simplify the list of coordinating conjunctions to the most common and useful seven, using the acronym FANBOYS. There are, however, many more.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello tareq
'by horses' is the agent of the passive verb 'used to be drawn'. Another way of saying this is 'In the past, horses drew carriages.'
I'm afraid that none of three options you list explains the meaning of 'by horses'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team