using 's'

[Unregistered]

Hi,


I am very confuse about these and I hope sir/miss can give me some ideas which one is the right.


- When I us if, shall I use past tense or present

e.g :

if he finds

or

if he found



- shall I add s after any?

e.g :

find any staffs against

or

find any staff againsts


Please advise. Thank you very much.



Regards,

Geo

 

[TheParser]

Hi,


I am very confuse about these and I hope sir/miss can give me some ideas which one is the right.


- When I us if, shall I use past tense or present

e.g :

if he finds

or

if he found



- shall I add s after any?

e.g :

find any staffs against

or

find any staff againsts


Please advise. Thank you very much.



Regards,

Geo

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Good morning, Geo.

(1) Our dog is lost. My son has left the house to go look for her (her =

our dog. Americans usually do not refer to dogs as "it"). If he findS our

dog, he will call us on his cellphone.

(2) Our daughter is very honest. If she ever FOUND $!,000 on the

sidewalk, she WOULD take it to the police.

*****

(1) The boss did not find any of the STAFF against the new rule.

(a) If you are talking about the people who are working at one company,

it would probably be better to use "staff." If you want to make it plural,

then you should probably say "staff members."

(a) But you could say: The staffS of the five companies will have

a big meeting to discuss a possible strike.

(2) I am 99% confident that you NEVER, EVER change prepositions.

(a) "Against" NEVER takes an "s."

(b) There are a few exceptions:

(i) Americans prefer "toward"; other speakers may prefer "towardS."

(c) Please NEVER add "s" or any other letter to prepositions: for, in,

to, about, of, on, etc.

Have a nice day!