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#2 (permalink) Thu Jan 12, 2012 21:22 pm Please, tell me that I have English! Small questions |
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"How do you do?" is a set expression -- a type of greeting. I do not see any meaningful way to put it in the passive, nor any reason to want to.
"He is not accustomed to getting up early" is correct. "getting up early" is a noun phrase. Grammatically the sentence is like "He is not accustomed to the climate", for example.
In "He need never feel lonely", the verb "need" is behaving as an auxiliary verb, so it does not inflect. It's a similar idea to "He must never feel lonely", for example, where "must" does not become "musts". However, unlike "must", the verb "need" has a more common main-verb use in which it does inflect (e.g. "He needs money"). |
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Dozy I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Posts: 3315 Location: UK
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#3 (permalink) Fri Jan 13, 2012 13:32 pm Please, tell me that I have English! Small questions |
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Actually, "thanks" is unable to express my gratitude. Anyway, I'm sorry to ask but I would like to know your job, teacher, prof, and in what major? And are you a native speaker? British or American? Finally, what is the best grammar course you suggest for a non-native to study -or to buy- ? |
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Globetrotter I'm new here and I like it ;-)
Joined: 14 Sep 2010 Posts: 29
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#4 (permalink) Fri Jan 13, 2012 15:23 pm Please, tell me that I have English! Small questions |
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| I'm a native BrE speaker. I'm not actually a teacher, just someone with an interest in language. I do not feel qualified to advise you on grammar courses; perhaps someone else here might be able to make some suggestions? |
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Dozy I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Posts: 3315 Location: UK
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#5 (permalink) Fri Jan 13, 2012 21:25 pm Please, tell me that I have English! Small questions |
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| Dozy wrote: |
| In "He need never feel lonely", the verb "need" is behaving as an auxiliary verb, so it does not inflect. It's a similar idea to "He must never feel lonely", for example, where "must" does not become "musts". However, unlike "must", the verb "need" has a more common main-verb use in which it does inflect (e.g. "He needs money"). |
There are some important things we should know about "need" as an auxiliary verb (AV). As such, the AV "need":
- is not subject to the inflection (I need, you need, he/she/it need etc.). - is employed rather rarely (in a way it sounds more formal) and almost exclusively in questions and negatives. - undergoes inversion when put into a question and its negative is formed by placing "not" after it. - cannot be followed by a noun, only by a verb (so, when you come upon a sentence like "I need a new car", it is obvious that "need" here is not an AV). |
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Jaro7788 I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 24 Jun 2011 Posts: 116 Location: Poland
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#6 (permalink) Fri Jan 13, 2012 22:12 pm Please, tell me that I have English! Small questions |
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| Re-reading my quote, I notice also that I should have mentioned that it is a modal auxiliary verb, rather than just an auxiliary verb. Obviously some auxiliary verbs, such as "do" and "have", do inflect. |
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Dozy I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Posts: 3315 Location: UK
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| There | Are these sentences natural? Jan 13 |