Before Sarah can board the bus, she needs to get some coins for the fare.  Before she can board the bus, Sarah needs to get some coins for the fare.    My questions are:  Between the above two sentences, which is more correct?  Can the pronoun come before the noun?  Is there any rule defining this issue?  Also, must the noun only be in the main clause?
121054
To my knowledge, personal pronouns and the noun they represent can be inter-swapped. So both these sentences are correct. (I may be wrong, I'm not sure.)  "Unless she arrives here early, Susan will be fired."  "Unless Susan arrives here early, she will be fired."  However in the case of possessive pronouns is such a rule/ understanding also the same? My question is, simply put, must the noun be in the main clause always and the possessive pronoun in the subordinate clause? Are both iterations correct or is one more popular/grammatical than the other?  "Due to his poor memory, Richard forgot about the appointment."  "Due to Richard's poor memory, he forgot about the appointment."  One proponent suggested to me that the noun must always be in the main clause, since the main clause can stand alone as a sentence. Is this true? Anaphora or cataphora?
120502
A colleague asked me which of these sentences is correct, or if they are both correct which is better to use.   Are you using the current template version? Do you use the current template version?   I recommended using the first sentence but only because it sounds better to me.  Is there anything grammatically wrong with the second sentence or does it convey a different meaning to the first sentence?
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Example sentence:     I had a little time before the train came.   Would you please explain to me why it is correct to use "the" before "train"? My teacher told me that "the" is used before objects well-known to both speakers and that if a noun is used for the first time we shoud use "a".   But in this example the speaker uses "train" for the first time. Moreover we don't know about this train, so we must use "a train", not "the train". But it was a native speaker who said it; what exactly did he mean to say?
74724
For example, instead of      The guy who is beside me is a jerk     I can say        The guy beside me is a jerk.    It is okay if I don't use the relative pronoun here, either way is correct. But instead of "The guy who sits beside me is a jerk" I cannot say "The guy sits beside me is a jerk." And I cannot say "The people sit beside me are jerks." or "The people sit beside me keep changing." etc.   What is the rule about this? In what situations do I have a chance to not to use the relative pronoun?
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I posted a question today about ""and I used the verb "find" in the progressive.:  I'm finding more and more that "having to" is also used instead of "have to".  Someone comments it's a "recency illusion" or a stereotypical characteristic of Indian English. I'm not a native speaker of English, and I never have been in touch with Indian a bit. I've been reading about stative verbs in the progressiveand I've seen and heard them not a few times in movies, dramas, novels, games, grammars, most of which are put out in the U.S.A. or the U.K., so I thought it would be OK to use the special progressive use in proper contexts, but now I think I'm missing something important, and I'm confused a lot. If you know what it is, please tell me about it with good explanations and examples. Now I'm going to show you some of the examples of the progressive with stative verbs that I've been collecting on my own for two years or so, (quite a few of them from grammars, some from dramas, novels and stuff...) and I want to know you native speakers' opinions on that. If your views on the usage diverge a lot, I'm going to have to think about which side I'm on,and one of the two is preferred over the other, then I'll follow it.        It’s mattering more and more which university you get your degree at.   She is not finding London totally easy.   I’m finding (=discovering, realizing) that his problem is more complicated than I had expected.   No, I’m sort of thinking that I’d like to try a bit higher level heel, anyway.   I’m thinking that we should pay a short visit to Clara.   One night in the middle of the night, I'm hearing dripping.   How are you liking your new job?   I was quite liking the performance until the first interval.   Tim, are you wanting any fruit?   It sounds that you're wanting to take care of yourself physically as well.   The only thing I'm lacking is a wardrobe.   He’s forgetting his French faster and faster.    I'm already forgetting what I was taught this morning.   You're forgetting that our resources are not unlimited.   I’m forgetting that I promised to visit Smith this evening.   The river is smelling particularly bad today.   My scarf is no longer smelling of lavender.   She’s looking much stronger this week.   You’re looking more like a sleep dog than most sleep dogs.   He’s looking worse and worse by the minute.   Your soup is tasting better every day.   That example is sounding less and less acceptable with each repetition.       ※. What I'm asking you is as follows:  1. the validity of the expression "I'm finding more and more that..." in the context of the original post 2. whether or not stative verbs in the progressive is widely acceptable &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and questions about your opinions on that &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; (As I already said, if most of you reject the usage like the examples, then I should avoid it. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;If most of you welcome it, I'll keep on with it.)
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When I start a sentence with words like "someone" or "somebody", I don't know how to choose the right pronoun at the end of the sentence.  Examples:      If anybody asks you about the money, tell (Him - Her - It - Them) that it is in my bank account.     I felt that somebody was in the garden but I did not see (Him - Her - It - Them).     Speaker 1: A friend of mine helped me a lot.      Speaker 2: You should thank (Him - Her - It - Them).     Congratulations on your new baby! What's (His - Her - Its - Their) name?    Those are the cases or situations that I can think of. If you have any other different situations, please let me know.
61843
"The new laws are seen as an attempt to gag the press." In this sentence why the definite article 'the' is used before 'laws'(noun). I always get confused when to use 'the' and when not to. My teacher taught me, it is used when both speaker and listener are aware of what they are talking about i.e. both of them are familiar with that(noun). Can someone please clarify this? I have a feeling that I should've used 'the' before 'speaker' and 'listener' in the above sentence. Am I right?
122696
Consider the following use case:   Please check the username and password are correct. Please check that the username and password are correct.   In this case, I would say that that is required because it feels more natural to me and so the flow is better. However, is the lack of that wrong in this case?  The question boils down to: when is that optional? See . A quick summary:   That is optional if the pronoun is the object. That is required if the pronoun is the subject.   I think that we fall into the second case: that is required because the relative pronoun is the subject. But I'm not sure if I'm interpreting these rules correctly. Can someone please advise?
18699
Which of them is correct?     Everyone has their own stories   or      Everyone has their own story   What I'm asking about is that how could we decide that we should use a plural or singular noun after the word "own"? Is it correct to think that if a subject of the sentence is singular then a noun following the word "own" must be singular too?   Here are some examples below:     People have their own stories.      Dang has his own story.      Evenyone has their own story.
6046
I saw a bear, a lion and a donkey.   Is the usage of the article a necessary before each word in a list like this?      Biggs set out Monday morning for one of his usual hiking and   gold-panning trips near Whiskey Flats when he came across a mother   bear, yearling, and cub sitting on a stream bank.   Why is there no article before cub?
17722
Possible Duplicate:          I'm an EFL (English as a foreign language) teacher and I haven't been able to come up with a good principle for which preposition to use after get when referring to transportation.  Some examples:   Get in:   a car/taxi/van/truck, etc.  Get on:   a bus/plane/bike/truck, etc.    How can one choose whether to use in or on? Note that in some cases, such as the example with truck, either preposition is possible but the choice affects the meaning.  I've been telling my students that there is no rule, so they just have to memorize which preposition to use, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong.  This question would be better suited for the upcoming  Stack Exchange, but it hasn't entered beta yet. More .
2595
When telling a story about myself from the past, I have found myself in an internal debate over whether the correct way to segue into the present is:     That was me twelve years ago.   Or:     That was I twelve years ago.   My instincts tell me the first is correct (object pronoun after a verb and it sounds better to my ears). But, I'm not sure if pronouns after linking verbs should be object pronouns. Which is correct?
46472
Recently at work I was writing the following, and I have not been able to get a firm answer on which version is the most grammatically correct. The sentence is:     We would like to use one of the cables that _________ between rooms.   Is the correct conjugation run or runs?  I think 'run' is correct, because I think that the verb in the prepositional phrase is referring to 'cables' not 'one.' However, a number of colleagues have said that 'runs' is correct because one is singular.
1976
I can't figure out if the below sentence should use “was” or “were”, since I'm not sure what the subject of the sentence is. Is the sentence incomplete? How do I handle this kind of sentence, where no nouns or pronouns are present?     Knowing how to jump and being able to run was / were crucial during my high jump career.
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My friend and I got into an argument about English grammar, so I was hoping maybe you could help us out. Okay so we want to know if the following part of the sentence is correct, "People who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like I" rather than "People who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like me". I have already provided many sources to my friend showing that the first way is a formal and a grammatically correct way, however he wants an answer with this specific part of the sentence.   Please help us out  Thank you
9354
Practically every part of the banana tree is used by man.   I think this sentence is correct but my grammar book say there should be each instead of every. I know we can't use every as a pronoun but in above sentence every part used as a single unit.  Correct me if I am wrong.
13666
What is the grammar behind the construction "I think it strange/necessary that ...", and when can and cannot this apparent omission of the copula be used? Do we always need the "that" clause?  Also, this seems to be only allowed when the object is a pronoun (it in the above example). That is, we don't say "I think this method strange", correct?