The verb 'seem' is a specimen linking verb, as in:  (1) He seems a nice guy.  But it can have a clause as its complement, as in:  (2) He seems to be a nice guy. [to-infinitive clause] (3) It seems that he is a nice guy. [that-clause]  In (2) or (3) or both, is the verb 'seem' still a linking verb or something else? Answers to , don't specifically say whether the verb 'seem' as in (2) or (3) can be classified as a linking verb or not. If you or anyone can locate anything close to a possible answer to my question in the link, please let me know.
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Is there any difference between these expressions?  It seems like they have not completed the task yet. It seems that they have not completed the task yet. It seems  they haven't completed the task yet.
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Are there any significant structural or semantic differences between seem, appear and look in the sense of "to give the impression of being or doing something"?        She looks unhappy.   He seems angry.   They appear (to be) contented.   It looks as if it's going to rain again.   It looks like we're going home without a suntan.   It seems as if they're no longer in love.   It seems like she'll never agree to a divorce.    They appear to have run away from home. They cannot be traced.   I seem to have lost my way. Can you help me?   It seems to be some kind of jellyfish. Do not go near it.   They appear not to be at home. Nobody's answering.   They do not appear to be at home. No one's answering.    It seems that I may have made a mistake in believing you did this.   It appears that you may be quite innocent of any crime.   It looks as if/like you won't go to prison after all.   It seems a shame that we can't take Kevin on holiday with us.   It doesn't seem like a good idea to leave him here by himself.   It seems ridiculous that he has to stay here to look after the cat.
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Duplicate of:                    My sentence fragment possibilities are        ... can help rule out false alarms   ... can help to rule out false alarms      I feel like both are technically correct, and that the latter sounds somewhat more formal while the former may be a little more clear.  I often come upon the general issue of when to use "to [verb]" or just "[verb]"&nbsp;— is there a general rule?  Is only one of them actually correct?  (Even if someone can explain how to describe the difference between these cases would be appreciated, i.e. "infinitive vs. ____" )
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Are these Dummy subjects?  It was nice to see him   It's obvious that in this sentence "It" is a dummy subject and the sentence can be reconstructed as "To see him was nice".  But what about this: It is time to watch   Is the case same here as in the first one? Can it be reconstructed to "To watch is time"?  Also wanna ask something additional: We were happy to see each other  Now what happens in this sentence? "to see" is something lie a complement to the adjective "happy"?   Some other examples like this one: He is ready to play, She is prepared to play the piano
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I am not familiar with the idea that an adverb can function as a conjunction at the same time. Here are a couple of sentences that are confusing me.     This is the reason why she left him.   ...and     He was transferred to New York, where he was promoted to a higher level.   The  why, where, when, and how seem to introduce a clause. Therefore, can they also be called conjunctions? If yes, would I be right in assuming that relative adverbs can function as conjunctions at the same time?
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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.
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I was watching this video about Cyclopia on youtube and noticed this sentence: How does an animal that normally has two eyes develop just one in the center of its face.   I tried to google it but I couldn't find an answer, and it's really nagging me. So, shouldn't it be "develops" being the subject of the verb "an animal"? Btw, I also heard someone saying "It doesn't seem safe", instead of "It doesn't seems safe" in a movie. Can someone explain to me the proper usage, and if you can keep it simple, please... I'm not a native speaker, and most of my English I learned from watching movies and tv shows, I'm just now trying to learn about grammar and stuff.    Ps: Was this post to lengthy? That's my first time here on stackexchange and I'm not really sure how I should approach writing my questions.
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Have you ever seen anyone walk the streets like that? Have you ever seen anyone walking the streets like that?  Are both the above sentences grammatically correct? Do they mean the same?  I saw him kiss her the other day. I saw him kissing her the other day.  Are both the above sentences grammatically correct? Do they mean the same? And I'm sorry, if the latter two sentences come off immature .-. I couldn't come up with better sentences.
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I am writing a subordinate clause in the "Related Work" section of my academic paper. Which is correct?     In [1], Smith et al. pointed out that the solution is feasible.   OR     In [1], Smith et al. pointed out that the solution was feasible.   I am quite confused.  On the one hand, I remember clearly the verb tense in the "that" clause should follow that of the verb in the main sentence. Hence, "was" should be used, following "pointed".  On the other hand, Smith's work is always there and always thinks that the solution is feasible. Hence, the present tense should be used.  Which reasoning is correct?  (NOTE: The OP is asking if it is obligatory that the "is" verb is backshifted into "was", or if backshifting is not allowed, or if backshifting is optional. -- F.E.)
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I have a sentence which has an object that is described with an adjective:     We need to inform our interested patrons of this change.   If I modify "interested" with "more" or "less", do I connect the words with a hyphen or not?  Example sentence:     We need to inform our less-interested patrons of this change.     Also, please let me know if I have not used the correct terms for sentence parts in this question.
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I have some doubts about the usages of That and Who. Sometimes I read sentences such as. "You are someone I love" "You are someone WHO I love" Or "People were asked to describe the qualities they look for in a friend" "People were asked to describe the qualities THAT they look for in a friend"  Why in some of these sentences WHO or THAT are omitted and others are not. Could somebody help me with this? I'll appreciate it! Thanks a million.
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My friend had a homework exercise about stative verbs in their English class and asked me to help with it. The task was to mark sentences that were correct. There was one difficult sentence there:     I am preferring fish to meat.   In the other column, there was the same sentence in Present Simple:     I prefer fish to meat.   To me, it looks like the sentences are both correct. The latter means "I always/usually prefer fish to meat", the former means "Right now I am choosing fish, not meat, while I could usually prefer meat to fish.".   So, can I use "prefer" as a dynamic verb, meaning something along the lines of "choose", not "like"?
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The sentence below often appears in a &quot;blank&quot; page of books.  &quot;This Page Intentionally Left Blank&quot;  Why there's no linking verb after the subject (Page)? e.g.:  This Page Was Intentionally Left Blank   If the adverb in the original sentence is removed, we only have:  This Page Left Blank  So I wonder why the original sentence without a linking verb often appears in books. Is it not odd without a linking verb? Based on my understanding of the original sentence, it means that the page left itself blank, which is odd for me. Hope to get some clarifications about this.
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Consider this:     I like to eat here.   vs     I would eat here.   It appears to me that "to" has nothing to do with the infinitive form of the verb that follows. It is, in this example,  an integral part of like to, not of to eat.  Is my thinking flawed? If you think it is, could you please explain which form of the verb "eat" is used in the second example, if not the infinitive?
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I had a student ask about verb tense in the following question. "Live" is used with "the President", but I can't figure out why I don't want to add the "s". It doesn't "sound" right to me and I can't explain why.  Ex.-Is it important that the President live in the White House? OR Is it important that the President lives in the White House?
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From time to time I come across a sentence with to + verb, but with no other verb in it. I see it often in news titles. For example:     Squall, Tina and Lightning to appear in Final Fantasy Explorers   But what does it mean? What is the difference between this form, and that:     Squall, Tina and Lightning are appearing in Final Fantasy Explorers   The first time I saw that, I thought it was a mistake.
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That cake looks good.    In formal proper grammar, may good (adjective) get used as an adverb? Or, may you read it as, That cake (noun phrase, nominal[?], argument[?]), looks (verb, predicate[?]), good (subject compliment[?].? How may I discern this, grammatically?