Непростые вопросы по грамматике
Guestions
- Can we say I arrive to work at 9 o'clock or do we need to use "at"? Also can we say I was late to class or do we need to use "in"?
The worst thing about prepositions is that there are no nice simple rules to let you know how to use them with certain words. In most cases you just have to learn the prepositions that go with certain words. Let’s look at your two verbs : to arrive and to be late.
‘Arrive‘ can be followed by several prepositions depending on what is following, look at these:
- I arrived for work in the morning. (arrive + for where ‘work’ is a task or job to undertake)
- I arrived at work in the morning. (arrive + at where ‘work’ is a place)
- I arrived in time to see her. (arrive + in time where there is a temporal aspect)
So, in terms of the question, you can use ‘for‘ or ‘at‘ depending on what sense you want to give ‘work’ (a place or a task).
The second question with ‘to be late‘ is a bit different.
- I was late for class.
is the correct usage … late for something.
Question from English4Today member Gireesh in the United Arab Emirates:
Which one of the following sentences is correct having the meaning like “cannot accept…” ?
1) We regret to accept your letter…..
2) We regret not to accept your letter……
I’m afraid neither one of your examples is correct. The verb ‘regret‘ is not followed by the infinitive form of the verb (e.g. ‘to accept’) but more usually by the gerund form (-ing) or by a relative pronoun such as ‘that‘. Of course, another problem here is that the verb for ‘regret accepting‘ does not mean the same as ‘cannot accept‘. Let’s look at how we can use regret + accept to give the sense you want – we’ll have to add a little more to your sentences to do this:
- We regret not being able to accept your letter …
Now, we are using an equivalent of can (meaning having the ability to do something) which is ‘to be able to‘. We then need to make that negative not being able to and then follow that with the verb accept. Of course, you may find it easier to use this variation with the relative pronoun ‘that’ :
- We regret that we can’t accept your letter.
Or, try changing the verb ‘regret‘ into an adverb:
- Regrettably, we cannot accept your letter.
So, there’s more than one way to approach this but you have to know how to put the pieces together.
(From:
Question from English4Today member Gireesh in the United Arab Emirates:
Which one of the following sentences is correct having the meaning like “cannot accept…” ?
1) We regret to accept your letter…..
2) We regret not to accept your letter……
Hi Gireesh, I’m afraid neither one of your examples is correct. The verb ‘regret‘ is not followed by the infinitive form of the verb (e.g. ‘to accept’) but more usually by the gerund form (-ing) or by a relative pronoun such as ‘that‘. Of course, another problem here is that the verb for ‘regret accepting‘ does not mean the same as ‘cannot accept‘. Let’s look at how we can use regret + accept to give the sense you want – we’ll have to add a little more to your sentences to do this:
- We regret not being able to accept your letter …
Now, we are using an equivalent of can (meaning having the ability to do something) which is ‘to be able to‘. We then need to make that negative not being able to and then follow that with the verb accept. Of course, you may find it easier to use this variation with the relative pronoun ‘that’ :
- We regret that we can’t accept your letter.
Or, try changing the verb ‘regret‘ into an adverb:
- Regrettably, we cannot accept your letter.
So, there’s more than one way to approach this but you have to know how to put the pieces together.
(From:
Question from English4Today member Gireesh in the United Arab Emirates:
Which one of the following sentences is correct having the meaning like “cannot accept…” ?
1) We regret to accept your letter…..
2) We regret not to accept your letter……
Hi Gireesh, I’m afraid neither one of your examples is correct. The verb ‘regret‘ is not followed by the infinitive form of the verb (e.g. ‘to accept’) but more usually by the gerund form (-ing) or by a relative pronoun such as ‘that‘. Of course, another problem here is that the verb for ‘regret accepting‘ does not mean the same as ‘cannot accept‘. Let’s look at how we can use regret + accept to give the sense you want – we’ll have to add a little more to your sentences to do this:
- We regret not being able to accept your letter …
Now, we are using an equivalent of can (meaning having the ability to do something) which is ‘to be able to‘. We then need to make that negative not being able to and then follow that with the verb accept. Of course, you may find it easier to use this variation with the relative pronoun ‘that’ :
- We regret that we can’t accept your letter.
Or, try changing the verb ‘regret‘ into an adverb:
- Regrettably, we cannot accept your letter.
So, there’s more than one way to approach this but you have to know how to put the pieces together.
(From: english4Today)