Marmara Elt Resources

English Grammar-Present Perfect Progressive Tense

The present perfect progressive expresses the meaning until now and makes the connection between the past and present. Since it is progressive, it usually connotes an idea of continuity. It is often used with prepositional phrases: for + amount of time and since + point in time.

I have been living in Istanbul since 1999.

I have been living in Minneapolis for three years.

The present perfect progressive tense is made by placing have been (or has been) immediately in front of the -ing form of the main verb.

Read the rest of this entry »

English Grammar-Reciprocal Pronoun

Definition: We use the reciprocal pronouns to indicate that two people can carry out an action and get the consequences of that action at the same time. There are two reciprocal pronouns:

They enable you to simplify sentences where the same general idea is expressed two or more times.

For example:

• On their wedding day Jhon gave Mary a gold ring and Mary gave Jhon a gold ring.
  * Using the reciprocal pronoun, “each other”, this could be rewritten:
  => On their wedding day Mary and Jhon gave each other gold rings.
• Peter and Mary kissed each other.
  * In this example “each other” indicates that both people involved in the action of “kissing” got the result, kisses, at the same time.

If you need to refer to more than two people, say the students in a classroom, then we could use the reciprocal pronoun, “one another”.

For example:

• The students in this classroom cooperate with one another.
• The teachers gathered to congratulate one another on the year’s conclusion.

Non-Defining Relative Clause-The Function of Non-Defining Relative Clause

Definition: A non-defining relative clause (also called non-identifying relative clauses or non-restrictive relative clauses) provide interesting ADDITIONAL information which is not essential to understanding the meaning of the sentence. It tells us more about someone or something, but do not define it.

For example:

• Elephants that love mice are very unusual.
  * This tells us which elephants we are talking about.
• Elephants, which are large and grey, can sometimes be found in zoos.
  * This gives us some extra information about elephants - we are talking about all elephants, not just one type or group.
• My sister, who lives in France, is coming to stay with me next week.
  * “who lives in France” is not essential, which means that I only have one sister and she does not need to be defined by the “relative clause”)

Punctuation Correct punctuation is essential in non-defining relative clauses. If the non-defining relative clause occurs in the middle of a sentence, a comma is put before the relative pronoun and at the end of the clause. If the non-defining relative clause occurs at the end of a sentence, a comma is put before the relative pronoun. Read the rest of this entry »

Common Errors-Lack of agreement between noun and pronoun
Rules
Pronouns (words such as it, her, them, this, someone, who, him, they, themselves, herself, etc.) replace specific nouns (persons, places, or things) so you don’t have to keep repeating them. Like subjects and verbs, pronouns and nouns need to agree in “number”: in whether they are singular or plural. They also need to agree in gender: masculine, feminine, or inclusive (both).

Errors in noun-pronoun agreement usually simply result from writing quickly and not editing closely enough. Three specific instances, though, can cause problems:

1. The nouns each, and one are all singular and take singular pronouns; either or neither is singular unless it specifically refers to plural alternatives.
2. When using singular nouns that refer to both sexes or for which the gender is not known, use both masculine and feminine pronouns together (him or her, he or she, himself or herself, his or her) or rewrite the sentence to make the noun and the pronoun both plural.
3. Some nouns can be either singular or plural: audience, group, team, unit, class, and others. Use a singular or plural pronoun depending on whether you intend to indicate a single mass or a collective of individuals.
Read the rest of this entry »