My mother's driving is general.

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Ameeraana

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Is this sentence correct?

My mother's driving is general.
 
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Skrej

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It's grammatical, but meaningless. It means that you have more than one mother, all of whose driving is general. What you mean by 'general', though, I have no idea.

What are you trying to suggest about her/their driving? I suspect you meant "mother's" in the first part.
 

Ameeraana

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It's grammatical, but meaningless. It means that you have more than one mother, all of whose driving is general. What you mean by 'general', though, I have no idea.

What are you trying to suggest about her/their driving? I suspect you meant "mother's" in the first part.
Sorry, I meant " my mother's driving is general". Like she has a general way of driving.
 
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emsr2d2

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There is no such thing as "general driving". You could, at a push, describe her driving as "average", meaning that she's not a terrible driver but she's also not a great driver.

Please note that I have changed your thread title. Titles should include some/all of the words/phrases/sentences you're asking us to look at. Your actual question (in this case "Is this sentence correct?") should appear only in the main body of your post.
 

Ameeraana

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There is no such thing as "general driving". You could, at a push, describe her driving as "average", meaning that she's not a terrible driver but she's also not a great driver.

Please note that I have changed your thread title. Titles should include some/all of the words/phrases/sentences you're asking us to look at. Your actual question (in this case "Is this sentence correct?") should appear only in the main body of your post.
Ok, so is it correct grammatically? I know that it is meaningless.

I'll write the full question next times.
 

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emsr2d2

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That's the name of a company. It doesn't mean that they teach "general driving". It's like "General Motors", the name of one of the largest American car manufacturers. That doesn't mean they make "general cars" (which is meaningless).

"For its part, General Motors almost didn't get the name it bears today. Durant actually incorporated his company under the name International Motors Company in New Jersey in 1908. But his attorney advised him that it would be easier to raise capital under a new name. "We might use 'United Motors Company' were it not for the fact that there is already a United Motor Car Company in that state," the attorney wrote. "We suggest the name General Motors Company, as we have ascertained it can be used."
Source: AutoBlog.com
 

Ameeraana

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That's the name of a company. It doesn't mean that they teach "general driving". It's like "General Motors", the name of one of the largest American car manufacturers. That doesn't mean they make "general cars" (which is meaningless).
It's clear now. Just to make sure, in my sentence example, the grammar structure is correct but the usage of the word is not correct, so it becomes meaningless because there is nothing called "general driving". Like this, right?
 

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In the US, there's a cut-rate auto insurance company called "The General Insurance". Their mascot is a small mustachioed military general, which plays upon the dual meanings of general. Their policies are lackluster enough to earn a spoof on Family Guy.

Even their commercials are budget-rate underwhelming.
 

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What do you meant by "a general way of driving"? Do you mean her standard of driving compared to others, as in average/good/bad driver?
 

Ameeraana

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What do you meant by "a general way of driving"? Do you mean her standard of driving compared to others, as in average/good/bad driver?
Well, regardless to the meaning of the sentence, I know that the word "general" is an adjective and the word " driving" is a noun which is a gerund, so if I write it in this way " My mother's driving is general" will it be gramatically correct? Even if it has no meaning since I knew from you that there is nothing called "general driving", but is it gramatically correct? OR I have to change it into " My mother's driving is generally"?
 

emsr2d2

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Well, regardless to of the meaning of the sentence, I know that the word "general" is an adjective and the word "driving" is a noun which is a gerund, so if I write it in this way "My mother's driving is general", will it be is it grammatically correct?

Even if it has no meaning since though I knew from you told me that there is nothing called no such thing as "general driving", but is it grammatically correct no question mark here OR or do I have to change it into "My mother's driving is generally"?
1. "General" is both a noun and an adjective. In your original sentence, it's an adjective.
2. What possible use is knowing whether the sentence is grammatically correct if it's meaningless? That's a pointless question.
3. "My mother's driving is generally" is, if anything, worse than the original. "Generally" is an adverb meaning "in general". You could say "My mother's driving is generally terrible", meaning "Most of the time, she drives really badly".

I'm not sure what your problem is here. There are hundreds of adjectives that don't collocate with "My mother's driving is ...". You just happen to have found one of them.

Note my corrections in the quote box. Please take more care with your punctuation and spacing around it. Don't put a space after opening quotation marks. Don't put a space before closing quotation marks.
 
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