Recent content by ckcgordon

My question is about the object in the following sentence: All staff must wear their staff identity card/cards? I don't know if I should use a singular or plural object. Someone told me that since "their" is used here, we must must the plual object "cards". I'm not sure about this...

Thank you, abaka and sarat_106. It's really difficult for a non-native speaker to tell the difference between ppc tense and pc tense. I need some more time to digest your explanation. :-D

When I wrote She has been playing with the symphony orchestra this season, my teacher changed it into She has been playing with the symphony orchestra all season. She said the present perfect continuous tense focuses on duration of action. But I still don't understand why the phrase "this...

Matthew, thanks for your reply. But do you think "play on words" a bit too general? The phenomenon described here is very specific - it involves a substitution of part of a fixed term. In my mother tongue, we called this substitution "eating word" because the newly formed expression is obtained...

Sometimes for promotioin purpose we change part of a fixed term. Let's imagine there is a brand of beer would like to make use of the image of polar bears. They may call themselves: Polar Beer. My question is: do we have a term to describe this substitution phenomenon?

Thanks, Anglika, jlinger & poorboy_9.

Can anyone tell me the difference between a teaser and a trailer? I don't know how to distinguish them. To me, both of them refer to something which shows part of a movie.

Thanks, tedtmc.

Should we say (1) or (2)? (1) Jane has GONE to Canada for two weeks. (2) Jane has BEEN to Canada for two weeks. I think (2) is correct. But I really can't tell why. Could someone help?

If you have time, you can watch the first 20 seconds of the clip: YouTube - Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams The speaker says "Make me earn it", while he is signaling to the audience to sit down.

I just read the transcript of Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture". Before Randy started his lecture. He said, "make me earn it". I don't understand the meaning of this expression. Can someone explain?

Thanks for your explanation, beascarpetta. So I guess my understanding of what Charles said to Carrie was wrong. Charles is NOT proposing to Carrie; but the other way round. He is asking Carrie not to marry him; just staying with him together. Do I understand your explanation correctly?

I don't understand the dialogue near the end of the movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral": Charles: ...after we've dried off, after we've spent lots of time together, you might agree...not to marry me? And do you think not being married to me might maybe be something you could consider doing for...

Thank you, Riverkid, David L., RonBee, Ouisch. Thanks for your explanation.

There is a magazine/periodical called "Reader's Digest". I don't understand the title of the magazine/periodical. I look up the word "digest" in a dictionary but it seems to me that the explanations given cannot match with "Reader's". Can someone kindly explain? Thanks!!