In American football, it seems that some people would say:     He caught a pass.   To my knowledge, a "pass" is an action.  So, the sentence would translate to:     He caught an action.     Is my analysis wrong?
123074
The context is soccer (association football) and the sentence in question is:       The forward received the ball from the midfielder's pass.     I have already ask about this  and received alot of good answers, and I tried to leave it at that.  But then the World Cup 2014 is upon us, and I am starting to have doubts about this football usage of "from", to the point that I have semi-nightmares about it.  The use of "from" in the football example continues to bother me.  I seem to disagree (subconsciously) about how a ball (physical object) could be "from" a pass (action) unless that action creates that object.       Some people were hit by debris from the explosion.   The use of "from" in "debris from the explosion" makes excellent sense to me, because the explosion does create the debris.  But in soccer/football, the ball cannot possibly be "created" by a pass.    Is there any non-football usage of "from" similar to my football example sentence?
40223
I took an English assessment test online and this was my answer:     Someone suggested to go for a walk.   My answer was wrong and this was the correct sentence:     Someone suggested going for a walk.   Can someone please explain why my answer was wrong?
91122
My grammar book says that if you saw the complete action you use do/get/drive: &quot;I saw him fall off the wall.&quot; Otherwise you use -ing: &quot;I saw him standing at the bus stop.&quot; A native American speaker said that he doesn't agree with that and there is no difference whether you use -ing or not. He said that particularly in these situations I can use either verb without affecting the meaning:  —How do you know I took the money? —I know it because I saw you take / taking it. —How did the woman fall? —I don't know. I didn't see her fall / falling.   He couldn't come up with a situation where this rule makes sense. But I tried to come up with such situation and he said that in this case it can be true.  I saw him eat the whole plate of pasta.  He ate everything that was on the plate. I saw him finish it.  I saw him eating the whole plate of pasta.  I saw how he was eating from a plate full of pasta. But I'm not sure whether he ate everything or not. I didn't see him finish it.  Please comment on what has been said. And give your opinion about this rule.
68961
I've recently read a  from a local paper that included the following:     The pair was drinking prior to the shooting.   To me, this appears wrong and I would say that the proper way to make the statement would be:     The pair were drinking prior to the shooting.   Is the original article correct?
124078
Which one is correct? Please explain.  I saw one of my classmates who was also on the boat while travelling to Saint Martin.   I saw one of my classmates who were also on the boat while travelling to Saint Martin.  In this sentence what is the subject and why? How can I find the subject in sentences like this?
119357
I'm currently working at a private academy in Korea, and my boss just asked me a real head-scratcher.   In the sentence:     It doesn't have to be hot and humid for players to lose too much water from their bodies.    I'm aware that "It" is a subject pronoun replacing "The weather." Besides that, however, I'm unsure.   Is it a false subject? I wouldn't think so since it's a pronoun. Is it some crazy kind of indirect object?  Anyway, thank you all for your help!
32295
This is the first paragraph of an article:     The salvage operation had been a complete failure. The small ship, Elkor, which had been searching the Barents Sea for weeks, was on tis way home. A radio message from the mainland had been received by the ship's captain instructing him to give up the search. The captain knew that another attempt would be made later, for the sunken ship he was trying to find had been carrying a precious cargo of gold bullion.   Is the word "carry" here a state verb or action verb? Can we change "had been carrying" to "was carrying" or "carried"?  At the end of the article, it contains the following sentence:     The Karen ( the name of the sunken ship) had been sailing in a convoy to Russia when she was torpedoed by an enemy submarine.   Can we change "had been sailing" to "was sailing"?
115458
My native-speaker's grammatical intuition tells me that:  There is a sleeping man under the tree.  is fine but  There is a fishing man by the river bank.  is wrong.  Why? Both  There is a man sleeping under the tree.  and  There is a man fishing by the river bank.  are fine. I've thought about this a little, and I've come up with some grammatical hypotheses, but I'd be very grateful if somebody could point me to a general reference on this matter. Addendum: Someone asked me what hypotheses I've come up with. I've identified two cases where an -ing modifier can come before a noun:  When the -ing acts to modify the noun (like an adjective), rather than describe an action being performed at that time, it goes before the verb.  E.g. flying fish, dancing girl.  When the verb suggests a sensory impression.  E.g. crying baby, shining light.   But there must be at least one more class to account for expressions like a sleeping man. Second addendum: I should clarify precisely what fishing man is supposed to mean.  It does not mean a man who fishes.  That would be taken care of by case 1 of the hypothesis above.  The intended meaning is a man who is fishing.  (Just like a sleeping man is supposed to mean a man who is sleeping rather than a man who sleeps.)
45696
"He was watching the television when I called on him."  When I said this sentence to one of my friends  (an English teacher)  he corrected me saying that the definite article (the) should be omitted. Still, I can't understand why. ? Actually similar  question has been asked earlier but the answers were so ambiguous. So I put complete sentence.
246
I read this recently in :     At the end of the summit, the French and European officials had   claimed a points victory over the Germans by getting them to agree   more firmly to a target date of January 1st next year to entrust the   European Central Bank (ECB) with the ultimate authority to supervise   the euro zone’s 6,000-odd banks.   "Points" is a plural, and I suppose it doesn't function as a noun in this sentence since it's following the article "a", so is it an adjective adorning "victory"?
58862
I know the rule is to use past simple when you specify the time when the described action happened, but I strangely dislike this sentence and I'm not sure if the rule applies:   "It's the best movie I saw this year".  Shouldn't it be: "It's the best movie I've seen this year"?  Please, could you justify your answers? Thank you in advance!  Cheers
104508
When one uses simple past tense for some action, does it imply that the action is complete?  For instance, when you say “I wrote my article yesterday,” does this imply that at this moment you have a finished article or not? So it’s      I wrote a bit of my article yesterday, but I still have to finish it.   vs.      I started and finished writing my article yesterday and now I have a finished work, so I can publish it.   What about present perfect? Does it imply completeness? If you say “I have watched this film,” does this mean that you have actually watched it from start to end?  If both these tenses imply that the action was completed, do I have to use past continuous to emphasize the incompleteness of action? For instance, “I was watching this film,” so that the implied meaning is that I started watching it, but it’s not certain that I finished it.
38698
The exact phrase from the book of Swan (the context is choosing the words permit or allow) -      The passive structure with it is only possible with permit   Having said that...     It is not allowed to smoke in the kitchen - incorrect     It is not permitted to smoke in the kitchen - correct   I feel absolutely fine for the incorrect sentence.   Your inputs please. Make me understand this.
8760
What is the difference between the examples below?  Generally, in a newspaper, news is based on past tense (things which have already happened).   Then why are headlines written in ways that says: He Kills (shouldn't it be: He Killed)?  For example:  Parliament passes bill vs. Parliament passed bill  Also  He kills his friend vs. He killed his friend  Please help.
35261
E.g:        Turns out that it was a conspiracy against him.   It turned out to be a conspiracy against him.       I'm confused here in the usage of these phrasal verbs.
41944
Am I the only one whos athletic career bared fruit?    Is this sentence correct grammatically?
29555
Today an excruciating accident has taken place in our vicinity. Today an excruciating accident took place in our vicinity.   Today indicates the present time. So I prefer has taken, which has been used in first sentence. But a native speaker of English said that he would prefer took place, though he didn't tell me why he would do this.  Now I ask to the members of this site what do they think about this?