Grammar Help

[rajan]

Dear All,

I have ready many times such type of sentences which starts like that.

To my surprise, ................
To be honest, ...........
To the best of my knowledge, ....

I tried to analyze, but could not be successful.

How can we categorize these sentences and what t ype of phrases are these.

Thanks & Regards
Rajan

[TheParser]

[QUOTE=rajan;806461]


To my surprise, ................
To be honest, ...........
To the best of my knowledge, ....



ONLY A NON-TEACHER'S OPINION


(1) My favorite book calls these absolute (independent) constructions. That is,

they do not belong grammatically to the following sentence. (If you deleted

(erased) those absolute/independent constructions, your sentence would still be good

English.) Those absolute constructions are a comment on what follows.

(a) To my surprise, the usually noisy students were quiet today in class.

(i) "To my surprise" is a prepositional phrase used "absolutely" or "independently."

As you can see, it is a shorter (and more dramatic?) way to say "I was surprised that

the usually noisy students were quiet today in class."

(b) To be honest, I do not like him. He is too rude.

(i) As you know, "to be" is an infinitive. So we can say that "to be honest" is an

infinitive phrase being used absolutely or independently. I think that you could also

express that idea like this: I am being honest: I do not like him. (Here is an example

from Descriptive English Grammar by House and Harman: "To tell the truth, I

positively dislike him.")

(c) To the best of my knowledge, I have never seen her before.

(i) As you now know, that is a prepositional phrase. It's a comment on "I have

never seen her before." Grammatically speaking, there is no connection. But as

Pence & Emery remind us in A Grammar of Present-Day English, there is, of course,

a logical connection.

(2) Tom: I hear that you have lost all of your money.

Martha: Yes, I have.

Tom: I'm so sorry.

Martha: Thank you for your concern, but at any rate, I still have my good health.

= Well, I am thankful that I still have my good health.

(3) Mona: How do you like this school?

Joe: Some of the teachers are a bit impatient.

Mona: What about the cafeteria food?

Joe: It's super!

Mona: What about the girls?

Joe: They're really beautiful!''

Mona: Well, it seems to me that, on the whole, you have little to complain about,

dude! = When you consider everything, you have little ....

(Credit goes to Pence & Emery's book for the prepositional phrases "at any rate"

and "on the whole.")

[rajan]

Thanks for your detailed explaination.

Further there is one more question.

Will it be right to say

Being honest, I do not like him. He is too rude.

[QUOTE=TheParser;806482]

To my surprise, ................
To be honest, ...........
To the best of my knowledge, ....



ONLY A NON-TEACHER'S OPINION


(1) My favorite book calls these absolute (independent) constructions. That is,

they do not belong grammatically to the following sentence. (If you deleted

(erased) those absolute/independent constructions, your sentence would still be good

English.) Those absolute constructions are a comment on what follows.

(a) To my surprise, the usually noisy students were quiet today in class.

(i) "To my surprise" is a prepositional phrase used "absolutely" or "independently."

As you can see, it is a shorter (and more dramatic?) way to say "I was surprised that

the usually noisy students were quiet today in class."

(b) To be honest, I do not like him. He is too rude.

(i) As you know, "to be" is an infinitive. So we can say that "to be honest" is an

infinitive phrase being used absolutely or independently. I think that you could also

express that idea like this: I am being honest: I do not like him. (Here is an example

from Descriptive English Grammar by House and Harman: "To tell the truth, I

positively dislike him.")

(c) To the best of my knowledge, I have never seen her before.

(i) As you now know, that is a prepositional phrase. It's a comment on "I have

never seen her before." Grammatically speaking, there is no connection. But as

Pence & Emery remind us in A Grammar of Present-Day English, there is, of course,

a logical connection.

(2) Tom: I hear that you have lost all of your money.

Martha: Yes, I have.

Tom: I'm so sorry.

Martha: Thank you for your concern, but at any rate, I still have my good health.

= Well, I am thankful that I still have my good health.

(3) Mona: How do you like this school?

Joe: Some of the teachers are a bit impatient.

Mona: What about the cafeteria food?

Joe: It's super!

Mona: What about the girls?

Joe: They're really beautiful!''

Mona: Well, it seems to me that, on the whole, you have little to complain about,

dude! = When you consider everything, you have little ....

(Credit goes to Pence & Emery's book for the prepositional phrases "at any rate"

and "on the whole.")

[TheParser]

[QUOTE=rajan;806488]

Will it be right to say

Being honest, I do not like him. He is too rude.


ONLY A NON-TEACHER'S OPINION


(1) In my opinion (opinion!!!), the answer is NO.

(2) I think that "Being honest, I do not like him" = Because I am honest,

I do not like him." But my being honest is NOT the reason that I don't like him.

I don't like him because he is rude.

(3) When I say "To be honest, I don't like him." I am saying:

I have to be honest with you/ Honestly speaking, I do not like him.

P.S. I found $100. Being honest, I took it to the police. = Because I am an honest

person, I ....

[rajan]

Dear Parser,

I would like to ask further that "to be on safer side" also comes in this category, as you have explained. Further why cannot we use this phrase - to be on safe side

Dear All,

I have ready many times such type of sentences which starts like that.

To my surprise, ................
To be honest, ...........
To the best of my knowledge, ....

I tried to analyze, but could not be successful.

How can we categorize these sentences and what t ype of phrases are these.

Thanks & Regards
Rajan

[TheParser]

Dear Parser,

I would like to ask further that "to be on safer side" also comes in this category, as you have explained. Further why cannot we use this phrase - to be on safe side

NOT A TEACHER


(1) I believe that the expression is "to be on the safe side":

Our train leaves at 8:30 p.m. To be on the safe side, I plan to leave home an hour

earlier than I did last time. I almost missed my train last time because the taxi

got caught in traffic. I am not taking any chances this time.

(2) A road has two sides. If the road does not have a sidewalk, a pedestrian must walk

on the side facing oncoming automobiles. The government believes that is the safer

side (because pedestrians can see the cars that are coming down the road).

[symaa]

[QUOTE=TheParser;806482]

To my surprise, ................
To be honest, ...........
To the best of my knowledge, ....



ONLY A NON-TEACHER'S OPINION


(1) My favorite book calls these absolute (independent) constructions. That is,

they do not belong grammatically to the following sentence. (If you deleted

(erased) those absolute/independent constructions, your sentence would still be good

English.) Those absolute constructions are a comment on what follows.

(a) To my surprise, the usually noisy students were quiet today in class.

(i) "To my surprise" is a prepositional phrase used "absolutely" or "independently."

As you can see, it is a shorter (and more dramatic?) way to say "I was surprised that

the usually noisy students were quiet today in class."

(b) To be honest, I do not like him. He is too rude.

(i) As you know, "to be" is an infinitive. So we can say that "to be honest" is an

infinitive phrase being used absolutely or independently. I think that you could also

express that idea like this: I am being honest: I do not like him. (Here is an example

from Descriptive English Grammar by House and Harman: "To tell the truth, I

positively dislike him.")

(c) To the best of my knowledge, I have never seen her before.

(i) As you now know, that is a prepositional phrase. It's a comment on "I have

never seen her before." Grammatically speaking, there is no connection. But as

Pence & Emery remind us in A Grammar of Present-Day English, there is, of course,

a logical connection.

(2) Tom: I hear that you have lost all of your money.

Martha: Yes, I have.

Tom: I'm so sorry.

Martha: Thank you for your concern, but at any rate, I still have my good health.

= Well, I am thankful that I still have my good health.

(3) Mona: How do you like this school?

Joe: Some of the teachers are a bit impatient.

Mona: What about the cafeteria food?

Joe: It's super!

Mona: What about the girls?

Joe: They're really beautiful!''

Mona: Well, it seems to me that, on the whole, you have little to complain about,

dude! = When you consider everything, you have little ....

(Credit goes to Pence & Emery's book for the prepositional phrases "at any rate"

and "on the whole.")

I always learn from you, you simplify everything and give nice detailed answers, keep up the great work!
Thank you so much.

[5jj]

symaa, please don't quote long posts unless you are going to use them. Such quoting leads to a lot of unnecessary scrolling down

[symaa]

symaa, please don't quote long posts unless you are going to use them. Such quoting leads to a lot of unnecessary scrolling down

Oh! excuse me for that, and it will be the last time to quote long post.