Quote:
Originally Posted by Mashaaal
aamish and meme I am learning a lot from both of you. thanks for that. here is the third part. kindly pinpoint the mistakes.
He or she is a thief.
He or she is the thief.
Certificates are attached herewith.
Attached herewith are the certificates.
She died from cancer.
She died of cancer.
No sooner he left than the storm broke.
No sooner had he left, than the storm broke.
I would sooner quit than to do it.
I would sooner quit than doing it.
Slower you move, greater the time you take.
The slower you move, the greater time you take.
They considered him as a great fool.
They considered him to be a great fool
She was too pleased to hear the news.
She was much pleased to hear the news
He walks as if he is lame.
He walks as if he (was/had been?) lame. (  )
One can learn his lesson if he applies his mind to it.
One can learn his lesson if one applies his mind to it. |
Hey,
For the sentence: I would sooner quit than doing it, the correction should be: I would sooner quit than
do it. 'Doing it,' does not make sense since the first part of the sentence I would sooner quit is in a different tense.
2) She was too pleased to hear the news.
The correction should be: She was
very pleased to hear the news.
Reasoning: Very vs. Much
With adjectives and adverbs in the positive degree i.e. denoting a positive feeling, and with present participles used as adjectives very is used.
Examples:
1) I am
very happy to accept your offer [happy: adjective used in positive degree; very is used].
2) He was
very greatly impressed by his fluency of language [greatly: adverb in the positive degree: denotes how impressed he was].
3) the book is very amusing [amusing: present participle used as an adjective: describing the book in -ing form].
Also, a few past participles that function as
adjectives take very before them:
very tired; very pleased. [Source: Exploring the world of English 465].
In this case, pleased is a past participle used as an adjective, but why?
Past participles used as adjectives very often describe mental or emotional states, and therefore have a person or animal as their subject. There is no explicit agent, and often not even an implicit one. [
http://english.stackexchange.com/que...and-very-much].
Thus, she was ------pleased, the past participle pleased is being used as an adjective.
Now, much is used before past participles or with adjectives and adverbs in the comparative degree:
1) He is
much more intelligent than his brother [more intelligent: adjective in the comparative degree: more denotes comparison].
2) He suffered much more heavily than his friend in this business enterprise [more heavily: adverb in the comparative degree].
3) I thought him looking much altered [altered: past participle of alter].
Source: Exploring the world of English 465
To understand what past and present participles are this link is pretty straightforward:
http://staff.washington.edu/marynell...r/partadj.html
Both very and much are used before past participles; the difference in the usage has to do with how the past participle functions, i.e. is it used as an adjective, if yes then use very.
He walks as if he is lame.
Correction: He walks as if he were lame.
Reasoning:
"In English we also use as if to make comparisons. However it has a few distinct characteristics to its use:
1. The verb after AS IF is always in the past subjunctive, no matter what tense the sentence is.
2. If the verb BE directly follows AS IF, we use were for all personal pronouns.
He looks as if he knew the answer.
(The verbs LOOKS indicates this sentence is in the present – but the verb after AS IF – knew - is in the past subjuntive).
She walks as if she were a supermodel.
(The verb after AS IF – be – has been changed to were and not was).
He boarded the airplane as if he were a seasoned traveller.
He spends money as if he owned a bank" (Source:
http://www.grammar.cl/Notes/Like_vs_As.htm).
Regards,