♦️From A to Z.

من الألف إلى الياء؛ تماماً؛ بكل تفاصيله 👌🏻

= Completely; in every detail.

✨He knows the subject from A to Z.

⚠️The idiom is used only of complete or very detailed knowledge of some subject or field of study. We should hardly say, 'He knows the town from A to Z'.


#English_prepositional_idioms
@PMPerfect1

♦️ABSENT (adj/v)
غائب/يُغَيِّب

This word may be an #adjective or a #verb. If it is a verb it is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, and has a reflexive pronoun as its object. For both parts of speech, the place where the absentee should have been is indicated by from.

➖Several students were ABsent from the lecture. (adj.)
⚠️ غائب (غاب غير متعمداً)؛ غير متواجد.

➖Several students abSENTed themselves from the lecture.(v)
⚠️ غاب متعمداً.

✨To absent oneself from usually suggests a deliberate action; to be absent from does not; it merely implies that the person in question was not present.

🔻Absence and absentee also take from.

➖His absence from the meeting was not noticed.

➖He was charged with being an absentee from the army.


#English_prepositional_idioms
@PMPerfect1

🔻Amount of, number of or quantity of?🔻


✨Amount of or number of?

We use amount of with uncountable nouns. Number of is used with countable nouns:

➖We use a huge amount of paper in the office every day.

➖The amount of time it took to finish the job was very frustrating.

➖I have a number of things I want to talk to you about.

➖A great number of students volunteer each year for environmental projects.
🚫Not: A great amount of students volunteer …✘


✨A quantity of or quantities of?

Quantity is more #formal than amount or number. A quantity of or quantities of can be followed by a countable noun or an uncountable noun. They are most commonly used with an adjective such as huge, big, large, small:

➖The soldiers discovered a large quantity of weapons hidden under the floor of a disused building. (countable)

➖You only need a very small quantity of cement to mix with the sand. (uncountable)

➖Large quantities of illegal drugs had been discovered. (countable)

➖Aid workers have delivered huge quantities of food to the refugee camps. (uncountable)


#Confusing_words
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✨ afloat 🆚 floating


🔹The raft was afloat/floating on the river.

🔹The pilot quickly spotted the floating raft. (Not *afloat*)

🔻We cannot use afloat in front of a noun, only after a noun + be, seem to be, etc.


#Right_word_wrong_word
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ON commission 🆚 IN commission


🔘ON commission ▶️ payment on the basis of a stipulated proportion of the value of the goods sold مُقابِل عمولة

➖He sold cosmetics on commission.

🔘IN commission ▶️ available to be used: جاهز للاستخدام/للتشغيل

➖The operating theatres will be back in commission next week.


#Vocabulary
@PMPerfect1

🔳PRONOUNS


A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or a noun phrase. If we didn't have pronouns, we'd have to keep repeating our nouns and that would make our sentences cumbersome and repetitive. Pronouns are usually short words.

When most people think of pronouns, words like he, she, and they spring to mind, but there are nine different kinds of pronouns, including:


1️⃣#Personal_pronouns (e.g., he, they)
2️⃣#Demonstrative_pronouns (e.g., this, these)
3️⃣#Interrogative_pronouns (e.g., which, who)
4️⃣#Indefinite_pronouns (e.g., none, several)
5️⃣#Possessive_pronouns (e.g., his, your)
6️⃣#Reciprocal_pronouns (e.g., each other, one another)
7️⃣#Relative_pronouns (e.g., which, where)
8️⃣#Reflexive_pronouns (e.g., itself, himself)
9️⃣#Intensive_pronouns (e.g., itself, himself)


Let's look at each type one at a time.🙂


#Grammar
#Pronouns

@PMPerfect1

1️⃣ Personal Pronouns

🔻What Are #Personal_Pronouns?

The #personal_pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we, and they. #Personal_pronouns represent people or things, primarily to avoid repetition. Look at this example:

➖Myra, David's kitten, looks cute, but he thinks she is evil.
(The #personal_pronouns he and she avoid the need to repeat David and kitten.)

The issue with #personal_pronouns is that they change depending on how they're used. Let's start by looking at all the forms as shown in the table above!👆🏻

#Grammar
#Pronouns
#Personal_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

🔻What are the different types of #Personal_pronouns?

The different types of #Personal_pronouns based on how it's used, each personal pronoun is categorized as one of the following:

1️⃣Subjective Personal Pronoun

I, you, he, she, it, we, and they are the #subjective_personal_pronouns. These are the versions used for the subjects of verbs. For example:

➖You are happy.
➖They won the league.

2️⃣Objective Personal Pronoun

The #objective_personal_pronouns are me, you, him, her, it, us, and them.

These are the versions used when the #personal_pronouns are objects (i.e., direct objects, indirect objects, or objects of prepositions). For example:

➖Paul knows her.
(The #personal_pronoun is a direct object.)

➖Paul gave them the letter.
(The #personal_pronoun is an indirect object.)

➖Paul went with him.
(The #personal_pronoun is an object of a preposition.)

3️⃣Possessive Personal Pronoun

The #possessive_personal_pronouns are mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs. They represent something that is owned and tell us who the owner is. For example:

➖Myra protected the pantry, believing all the food was hers.
(Here, hers represents all the food and tells us the owner is Myra. A #possessive_pronoun replaces a #possessive_determiner and a noun, e.g.,
her food becomes 👉🏻 hers,
my story becomes 👉🏻 mine, and
their jellybean becomes 👉🏻 theirs.
Note that #possessive_determiners are classified as pronouns too.)

4️⃣Reflexive Personal Pronoun

The #reflexive_personal_pronouns are myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. A #reflexive_pronoun refers back to the subject.

➖David did not blame himself for Myra's aggression.
(The subject is David. The #reflexive_pronoun himself refers back to David.)

It is more normal for a sentence to include several types of personal pronoun. The short (somewhat contrived but grammatically correct) sentence below contains all four types:

➖She saw herself and me in theirs.
(Here, the #personal_pronouns are She (subjective), herself (reflexive), me (objective), and theirs (possessive).)

#Grammar
#Pronouns
#Personal_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

🔻Why Should I Care about Personal Pronouns?

Native English speakers nearly always use the correct #personal_pronouns, and there are few serious mistakes associated with them, but here are six noteworthy points.

(Point 1️⃣) The subjective pronoun "I" can't be the object of a verb or a preposition.

➖They found my wife and I under the snowdrift.❌

(The #subjective_pronoun I must be the subject of a verb. Here, it's the direct object of the verb found. It should read They found me and my wife.)

➖I sent condolences from my wife and I.❌

(I must be the subject of a verb. After a preposition (in this case, from), you need the #objective_pronoun me. It should read from me and my wife.)

➖Keep this between you and I.❌

(The term between you and I is always wrong. I cannot be the object of a preposition (in this case, between).)

Native English speakers rarely make this mistake with other #personal_pronouns. To some ears, terms like from my wife and I and between you and I sound more highbrow. Highbrow they might be. Wrong they are.


(Point 2️⃣) There are no apostrophes in possessive personal pronouns.

Yes, it's true that apostrophes can be used to show possession (e.g., dragon's tooth, newt's eye), but there are no apostrophes in any possessive personal pronouns. That's a 100% rule.

➖I like her's better than their's.❌

"What about it's?", you might ask. Well, it's (with an apostrophe) is an expansion of it is or it has. That's another 100% rule. If you use it's, make sure you can expand to it is or it has. If you can't, it's wrong.


#Grammar
#Pronouns
#Personal_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

(Point 3️⃣) This is good stuff for learning a foreign language.

If you're not someone who says between you and I or someone who puts an apostrophe in theirs, then the next best reason to care about personal-pronoun terminology is that it will help you with learning a foreign language.

If you're a native English speaker, then, whether you know it or not, you currently select a #personal_pronoun having first determined its:

🔸Number. Is the #personal_pronoun representing something singular or plural?

🔸Person. Is the #personal_pronoun representing something in:

• the first person (this is the speaker himself or a group that includes the speaker (I, we)),

• the second person (this is the speaker's audience (you)), or

• the third person (this is everybody else (he, she, it, they).)

🔸Gender. Is the #personal_pronoun representing something male or female?

🔸Case. Is the #personal_pronoun representing something which is a subject or an object?

So, when you say something as simple as We like him, your brain has whipped through that list twice, making eight decisions on #personal_pronouns. That's a lot of grammar processing happening in a flash. When you start learning a foreign language (particularly in the classroom), this grammar processing is done far more consciously and systematically.

(Point 4️⃣) You can use they instead of he/she.

In English, there is no singular gender-neutral #personal_pronoun. This example will make that clearer:

➖If a burglar falls through your skylight, he could sue you.

(Why he? Girls can be burglars too.😁)

Here are your options (ordered for their acceptability) for fixing this problem:

Option 1️⃣: Try an all-plural version.

➖If burglars fall through your skylight, they could sue you.

(This is a good fix, if your sentence allows it.)

Option 2️⃣: Use a "singular" they.

➖If a burglar falls through your skylight, they could sue you.

(Even though they (plural) refers to burglar (singular), using a "singular" they is now an acceptable practice. Some people won't like it, but actually it's a pretty good compromise for handling the fact that we just don't have a singular gender-neutral #personal_pronoun.)

Option 3️⃣: Use he or she or he/she.

➖If a burglar falls through your skylight, he/she could sue you.

(This is a poor option. You'd have to really hate the "singular" they to choose this option.)

Option 4️⃣: Just use he.

➖If a burglar falls through your skylight, he could sue you. (This is out of date. You might get away with it, especially with such a male-dominated "trade" as burglary, but it's clearly sexist. Using he for he/she is only just hanging in there as an option because it used to be an acceptable way of overcoming our grammar's shortcoming. It wasn't uncommon for the opening pages of a document to include the caveat "He means he or she." Avoid this option.🚫)

This issue pertains to possessive determiners too.

➖A journalist must protect his sources.
(His is a possessive determiner.)

Here are some possible fixes:

➖Journalists must protect their sources.
(Go plural - the perfect option👍🏻)

➖A journalist must protect their sources.
(Use a "singular" their - perfectly acceptable👏🏻)

➖A journalist must protect his/her sources.
(Use his/her - poor⚠️)

➖A journalist must protect his sources.
(Use he for his/her - pants👎🏻)


#Grammar
#Pronouns
#Personal_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

(Point 4️⃣) Don't use myself when giving an order.

A #reflexive_personal_pronoun refers back to the subject. When you give an order (i.e., an imperative sentence), the implied subject is "you." This means you can only use yourself or yourselves in an imperative sentence. You can't use myself.

➖Clean yourself up!❌

(Remember that the #reflexive_personal_pronoun (yourself) must refer back to the implied "you." ("You" clean yourself up!) That's grammatically okay.)

➖Write to myself if there's an issue.❌

(The #reflexive_personal_pronoun myself cannot refer back to the implied "you." ("You" write to myself if there's an issue.) That's grammatically not okay. It should be me not myself.)

(Point 5️⃣) "It was me" is acceptable.

People often question whether they should say "It was me" or "It was I." It's a fair question because a subject complement (in this case, the word after was) is supposed to be written in the subjective case (i.e., I is correct), but we know that everyone has been saying "It was me" for so long that "It was I" now sounds wrong or, at the very least, pretentious for many.

Here's the quick answer: you can say either.😊


#Grammar
#Pronouns
#Personal_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

🔻Using Object Pronouns in #Informal_English

"There are three situations where the object pronoun is sometimes used (especially in informal English) although it is the subject in terms of meaning:

(A) After than or as in comparisons:
➖They work longer hours than us.

(B) In replies without a verb.
➖'I'm feeling very tired.' ' Me too.'

(C) After the verb be (as complement).
➖'Is that the Prime Minister, in the middle of the photograph?' 'Yes, that's him.'

In all three cases, the subject pronoun (we, I, he) is uncommon and #formal, although some people think it is 'correct.' The object pronoun is much more common.

"To be safe, for (A) and (B) above, use the subject pronoun + auxiliary; everyone is happy with this!

➖Her sister can sing better than she can.
➖'I am feeling very tired.' ' I am, too.'"

(Geoffrey Leech, Benita Cruickshank, and Roz Ivanic, An A-Z of English Grammar & Usage, 2nd ed. Pearson, 2001)


#Grammar
#Pronouns
#Personal_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

2️⃣ Demonstrative Pronouns


In grammar, a #demonstrative is a determiner or a pronoun that points to a particular noun or to the noun it replaces. There are four #demonstratives in English:
• the "near" demonstratives this and these, and
• the "far" demonstratives that and those.
This and that are singular; these and those are plural.

🔹A #demonstrative_pronoun distinguishes its antecedent from similar things. For example:

➖Let me pick out the books. I want these, not those.
➖Here's a copy of the plan. Study this carefully.
➖Your notes are worthless. Read these instead.
➖The rolls I brought are fresh. Those are stale.

🔹When a demonstrative comes before a noun, it's sometimes called a #demonstrative_adjective or a #demonstrative_determiner:

➖Son, take this bat and hit that ball out of the park.
➖This movie is boring.
➖That idea is crazy.
➖These brownies are delicious.
➖Those children are hungry.


#Grammar
#Pronouns
#Demonstrative_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

🔻Determiners and Their Antecedents


"Like other determiner classes, the #demonstrative_pronoun must replace or stand for a clearly stated antecedent. In the following example, that does not refer to 'solar energy'; it has no clear antecedent:

➖Our contractor is obviously skeptical about solar energy. That doesn't surprise me.

When a this or that has no specific antecedent, the writer can usually improve the sentence by providing a noun headword for the #demonstrative_pronoun--by turning the pronoun into a determiner:

➖Our contractor is obviously skeptical about solar energy. That attitude (or His attitude) doesn't surprise me.

A combination of the two sentences would also be an improvement over the vague use of that."

(Martha Kolln, Understanding English Grammar. Allyn & Bacon, 1998)


#Grammar
#Pronouns
#Demonstrative_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

🔻More about #Demonstrative_pronouns


#Grammar
#Pronouns
#Demonstrative_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

3️⃣Interrogative Pronouns


🔻What Are #Interrogative_Pronouns?

The main #interrogative_pronouns are what, which, who, whom, and whose. #Interrogative_pronouns are used to ask questions. The other, less common #interrogative_pronouns are the same as the ones above but with the suffix -ever or -soever (e.g., whatever, whichever, whatsoever, whichsoever).

➖What is that?
➖Which is yours?
➖Who done it?
➖Whom shall we ask?
➖Whose is this?
➖Whatever did you say?
➖Whomsoever did you find?
➖Whosever is this?

The suffix -ever and -soever are used for emphasis or to show surprise. (The suffix -soever is less common as it considered old fashioned.)

➖What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. (William Shakespeare)

(Here, the word which is not an interrogative pronoun. (It's actually a #relative_pronoun.) Remember that most words can play several different roles (or "functions" as grammarians like to say). In other words, which is only an #interrogative_pronoun when it's functioning as one!)

✨#Interrogative_pronouns can also be used to create indirect questions.

➖Do you know what this is?
(Here, the #interrogative_pronoun what is being used in an indirect question (bold), which is part of a wider question.)

➖I want to know what this is.
(Indirect questions can also feature in statements, i.e., in non-questions.)

✨⚠️#Do_not confuse:

🔸#interrogative_pronouns with interrogative determiners (called "interrogative adjectives" in traditional grammar), which look the same as interrogative pronouns.

➖Which feat is the greater?
(This is not an #interrogative_pronoun. It is an #interrogative_determiner. The word Which modifies feat. Therefore, it's a determiner.)

🔸#interrogative_pronouns with #interrogative_adverbs (how, when, why, where), which are also used to ask questions.

➖🅰️:Who are you and how did you get in here?
🅱️:I'm a locksmith. And...I'm a locksmith.
(from the 1982 TV series "Police Squad!")

(In this example,
✨the answer to the #interrogative_pronoun who is the noun phrase a locksmith.

✨The answer to the #interrogative_adverb how is the unstated adverbial phrase by virtue of being a locksmith.

✨The answer to a question starting with an #interrogative_pronoun will be a noun (typically a person, place, or thing).

✨The answer to a question starting with an #interrogative_adverb (how, when, why, where) will be an adverb (typically a manner, a time, a reason, or a term linked to place, e.g., in the city.)

#Grammar
#Pronouns
#interrogative_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

4️⃣ Indefinite Pronouns


🔻What are #Indefinite_Pronouns?

An #indefinite_pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an unspecified or unidentified person or thing. It's vague rather than specific, and it doesn't have an antecedent.

#Indefinite_pronouns include:

🔹quantifiers (some, any, enough, several, many, much);
🔹universals (all, both, every, each); and
🔹partitives (any, anyone, anybody, either, neither, no, nobody, some, someone).

Many of the #indefinite_pronouns can function as determiners. Positive #indefinite_pronouns ending in -body can be interchanged with those that end with -one, such as anybody and anyone.

Types of #indefinite_pronouns fit two categories:

🔸those that are made up of two morphemes and are called compound pronouns, such as somebody, and

🔸those that are followed by the word of, called of-pronouns, such as all or many. 


#Grammar
#Pronouns
#indefinite_pronouns

@PMPerfect1

🔻Singular Indefinite Pronouns

Most #indefinite_pronouns take singular verbs, either because they represent one thing or because they are collective, and, like collective nouns, agree with singular verbs and pronouns.

➖Neither of us is available for the committee.
➖Each member of the family has the flu.
➖Everyone works well together.
➖Someone came into the room looking for her water bottle.
➖Everybody kept the information on the surprise to him or herself.
➖Either option presents its own challenges.

In #informal speech, someone would likely say, "Everybody kept the information on the surprise to themselves," and no one would find a reason to correct the speaker, because the context is clear!

🔻Plural and Variable Pronouns

🔹Plural #indefinite_pronouns take plural verbs. For example:

➖Both of us match the description. 
➖Many were hoping for a better outcome.
➖Few were optimistic about this ballgame.

🔹Variable #indefinite_pronouns (all, any, more, most, none, some) can go with either a plural or a singular verb, based on what noun they're talking about.

➖Most employees are getting a raise. 
➖All the ice is gone.
➖Some ice cubes are in that cooler. 
➖Any experience is beneficial to the job. 
➖Some of his sadness practically feels tangible.


#Grammar
#Pronouns
#indefinite_pronouns

@PMPerfect1