Grammatical Terms Discussion

[blacknomi]

I have a feeling that I'm picking the bones in an egg now. This question is going to be a bit too detailed and could be annoying. I would be much appreciated if you would like to share your opinion.

A problem arised with the negation of a clause which contains no auxiliary;ie a clause whose verb is a simple present or past tense form(apart from 'be') liek give, gives or gave. English overcomes this problem by introducing the substitute or 'dummy' auxiliary 'do', which, like modal auxiliaries, is followed by the bare infinitive.

She sees me every week. --> See does not see me every week.
They understand me. --> They do not understand me.
I stand up. --> I did not stand up.


What do you called the bold form when you teach grammar? Would you just call it auxiliary?

[hela]

Dear teachers,

First I'd like to thank the webmaster for always updating this page and making it more userfriendly. I think that everybody appreciates this effort.

Second, Blacknomi said:
"I have a feeling that I'm picking the bones in an egg now." What does this expression mean?

Thanks a lot and have a good day.
Hela

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by blacknomi

She sees me every week. --> She does not see me every week.
They understand me. --> They do not understand me.
I stand up. --> I did not stand up.

What do you call the bold form when you teach grammar? Would you just call it auxiliary?

It's an auxiliary, and the process is called DO-Insertion. :D

Try,

I stood up => I did not stand up. ('did' carries the tense, past tense)
I stand up => I do not stand up. ('do' carries the tense, present tense)
She stands up => She does not stand up. ('does' carries present tense and number agreement, -es)

[Red5]

Originally Posted by hela

First I'd like to thank the webmaster for always updating this page and making it more userfriendly. I think that everybody appreciates this effort.

You're quite welcome! I hope it is, in fact, a better forum because of the changes and more user friendly.

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by hela

Blacknomi said:
"I have a feeling that I'm picking the bones in an egg now." What does this expression mean?

I'm notfamiliar with the expression, but how many bones are there in an egg?

[blacknomi]

so how many can you pick?

[blacknomi]

for making a senior userunfriendly. <gggggggggggggggg>

It's good. I'll try to get used to it. Ta, Red5 and tdol.

[blacknomi]

Cas, thanks.