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ESL forum >
Ask for help > Grammar Help
Grammar Help
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penn28
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Grammar Help
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Dear Friends, a student of mine asked that when she wrote �The better English. � as one sentence, she was marked wrong. I know it is wrong, but why? Many Thanks Penny
sorry for the mistake
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4 Mar 2015
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cunliffe
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I think you have to have a verb to call it a sentence. So, �This is the best English � would be OK. |
4 Mar 2015
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penn28
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Sorry for my mistake! Penny |
4 Mar 2015
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Istruka
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I agree with cunliffe. If there isn �t a verb then it �s not a sentence. |
4 Mar 2015
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rudiwals
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Correct me if I �m wrong but I think there are some sentences that don �t need a verb. (or the verb is implied) in case of warning/alarms "Take off in 10 seconds." "System shut down in 60 seconds." or even in answers to simple questions like "how are you?" "Fine." (I �m) is implied in this case. The better English however is a fragment, it also has no context in the way you it is provided here. What was the previous sentence. If it would be an argument about e.g. American English or British English, you could point at an example of the British English while saying "This is the better English" Although i would omit the word the and just say "This is better English". Now I am no expert or linguist just a preschool teacher so I might be completely wrong here.
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4 Mar 2015
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almaz
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I like the cut of your jib, young Rudiwais. Seriously, arguments over what constitutes a �sentence � have been going on for a long time. Is it purely orthographic or can it be any standalone "utterance"? Must it express a "complete thought"? Is it really just anything that �s bounded by a capital letter at one end and a full stop, question or exclamation mark at the other? Must it have a subject and predicate and would a traditionalist reject a (verbless) nominal sentence as a real sentence? And why? Oh, and I can �t think what the context of "The better English" might be so that it can even be thought of as a sentence. It �s possible but pretty iffy even as a chapter heading. |
5 Mar 2015
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Peter Hardy
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I �ve learned that there is a difference between a phrase and a clause. A clause contains a subject and a verb. If not, it �s a phrase, and more often than not it �s perfectly correct. �The better English � however, is neither a clause nor a phrase. And why, Penny asked? Because it doesn �t make any sense. As Rudy and Almaz pointed out, we do use utterances, and we do omit words, but as long as it make sense, that �s �normal and okay �. Chees, Peter
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5 Mar 2015
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