Questions

[bl11dr1v3r]

Hi,
Can you explain why it's ''She couldn't but stand there crying'' but not ''stood there''?
And ''I hear someone shout in the distance'' . Is 'shout' correct? (My textbook said so)

 

[abaka]

Both "she stood there crying" and "she couldn't but stand there crying" are correct. The second sentence means that the only thing she could do was to stand and cry; circumstances made anything else impossible. The first sentence says nothing about what else she could have been doing.

''I hear someone shout in the distance'' is correct. It means you hear someone make a single call. If the person has been shouting for a longer time, you'd say "I hear someone shouting". Since usually you don't know whether it's a single call or continuous shouting until the shouting has ended, the most common usage of "shout" is in the past tense: "I heard someone shout". For the present tense, "I hear someone shouting" seems more common and natural.

 

[5jj]

Welcome to the forum, bl11dr1v3r;893627 :hi:

Pleae ask unrelated questions in separate threads. Things can become confusing if different people respond to different questions in the same thread. Please also remember: Your thread title should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.

I agree with most of what abaka wrote, but think that we are very unlikely indeed to say ''I hear someone shout in the distance'' . "I can hear someone shouting ..." is far more natural, in my opinion.

 

[charliedeut]

''I hear someone shout in the distance'' is correct. It means you hear someone make a single call. If the person has been shouting for a longer time, you'd say "I hear someone shouting". Since usually you don't know whether it's a single call or continuous shouting until the shouting has ended, the most common usage of "shout" is in the past tense: "I heard someone shout". For the present tense, "I hear someone shouting" seems more common and natural.

Silly me! Such a long time believing "heard" was the past tense of "to hear", when apparently I shoould have known it to be the past tense of "shout" :lol:

Greetings ;-)


charliedeut

 

[abaka]

Congratulations, you've caught me on a poorly-constructed sentence. I meant to say, of course, "the most common usage WITH "shout" is in the past tense".

 

[5jj]

Congratulations, you've caught me on a poorly-constructed sentence. I meant to say, of course, "the most common usage WITH "shout" is in the past tense".

Interesting. I read in my mind the message you intended to convey and did not notice the slip.