[erihime]

> Hello, Anglica.
Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate it. What you said has truth in it.
'persistence'. I totally agree with you. I will keep working on it. Thanks.

> Hello, riverkid.

Thanks for the detailed reply. What I need to do is keep working...
My problems are that some of the questions pop up in my mind are sometimes into details, like preposition, articles and so on... I think I know the general rules for those, there are always exceptions. Also, it is not always easy to explain why this one is correct whereas the other one is not correct. I need to build a very solid foundation, don't I?

If you don't mind my asking, I would like to ask you the following questions.

1) I go to my office by my car
I go to my office by car
I go to my office in my car.

To me, all of those sound correct. However, one of my friends told me
'I looked them up in the dictionary and it gave me the last two examples. how would you know the first example is correct?'
I didn't know what to answer that question. It sounds correct to me...

2) Mrs. Hilary Clinton is a Sanate of New York
Mrs. Hilary Clinton is the Sanate of New York.

Are both of them correct? By using 'a', does the first sentence imply she is one of 2 sanates of New York? Or if I use 'the', does that mean she is the only one senate representing the state of New York?

3) The server in our office went down yesterday.

Can we replace 'in' with 'at' ? If we are using serveral servers, should 'that' be 'a'?

4) 'I will be happy if you become happy with my gift. I will be upset if you become angry with me if I don't give you any gift?'

Does this sentence make sense? I hope it does. Am I using too many 'if's?
If you are to rewrite this, how would you do?

Questions are pouring over me continuously. All I can do is ask around, right?

Thanks a million!
I am so grateful I have found this community.

eihime with a huge grin!