July 3, 2021
Vocabulary Practice
The prisoner who absconded in 2000 was caught a few days later several hundred kilometers away.
Thyme likes to sprawl all over a pot, especially in the direction of sunlight.
Envious colleagues may want to smear you by spreading false gossips about you.
I raked through the pile of papers, but I couldn't find my vocabulary notebook even though it was on top!
The company's managers refused to ratify the contract proposed by the competition.
I could gorge myself on almonds all day if they weren't so expensive and rich in calories.
People as they get older tend to become less flexible, learn less, become stagnant, causing their career to falter.
If you want your company to succeed in a highly competitive industry, you must make sure that you undercut your competition in price by several percent or make sure your product is in a way unique.
Vocabulary Practice
The prisoner who absconded in 2000 was caught a few days later, several hundred kilometers away.
This is a slightly odd one :)
The way this sentence is laid out means, to me, "There are several prisoners I might be talking about. I am talking about the one that escaped in 2000. That prisoner was caught a few days later." So the who clause is serving to determine a particular prisoner. You might be looking a list of famous escapees, and talking about each of them.
If you *already* have a prisoner in mind, and you just want to add additional information - like "That prisoner I was talking about? He escaped in 2000, and was caught a few days later." - then the sentence needs more commas. "The prisoner, who absconded in 2000, was caught a few days later, several hundred kilometers away." Because the who clause *isn't* determinative, it's just a parenthetical, and commas are necessary to make that clear.
It turns out there's actually a nice wikipedia section about this very thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_relative_clauses#Restrictive_or_non-restrictive_relative_clauses
Without context it's impossible to tell which you mean, so all I've done is add a comma that I think makes the sentence flow better regardless.
Thyme likes to sprawl all over a pot, especially in the direction of sunlight.
Envious colleagues may want to smear you by spreading false gossips about you.
Uncountable unless used to mean "a person who likes to gossip".
I raked through the pile of papers, but I couldn't find my vocabulary notebook even though it was on top!
The company's managers refused to ratify the contract proposed by the competition.
I think this is probably okay, but I've only ever heard "ratify" used to refer to treaties between nation states. I might think you were being a bit ironic.
Also I'm not really sure about "the competition". It seems unusual for a company to sign a contract with the competition. But hard to say with no context.
I could gorge myself on almonds all day if they weren't so expensive and rich in calories.
People as they get older tend to become less flexible, learn less, become stagnant, causing their career to falter.
If you want your company to succeed in a highly competitive industry, you must make sure that you undercut your competition in price by several percent or make sure your product is in asome way unique.
I very very strongly prefer "some" over "a" here. Weirdly, you could definitely say "make sure there is a/some way in which your product is unique". "a" and "some" both perfectly fine there. But not in yours. Can't explain that :)
July 4, 2021
The company's managers refused to ratify the contract proposed by the competition.
Yeah, I agree. It doesn't make much sense really. Thanks for the feedback!
July 4, 2021
The prisoner who absconded in 2000 was caught a few days later, several hundred kilometers away.
I totally understand your reasoning here. I'm familiar with restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses, but I agree that without context, it's impossible to tell which one it should be. I didn't pay much attention to it since I completely made up those sentences just to practice vocabulary. On a second thought, I'd write ", who". Thank you for this correction.
Now that we're talking clauses, I believe I'd use ", which" in your last sentence: " so all I've done is add a comma that I think makes the sentence flow better regardless."
From what I've learned, the word "that" implies several things, and the clause specifies to which one we are referring. Therefore, I would use "which" in this case because we know that you added only a single comma, so the clause only provides additional information. What do you think?
July 4, 2021
Ooh! Interesting! Yes, I think the more obvious way to put that would be "a comma, which". But I actually did mean "a comma that", because I was thinking of how many commas I could have added. "You would need to add more commas if this is true, but I'm not sure if it is. So of the many commas I could've added, the comma I did add is one that makes the sentence flow better."
Well spotted, very relevant example :)
July 4, 2021
Wonderful! Thanks for the explanation. Now it makes sense!
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Vocabulary Practice This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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The prisoner who absconded in 2000 was caught a few days later several hundred kilometers away. The prisoner who absconded in 2000 was caught a few days later, several hundred kilometers away. This is a slightly odd one :) The way this sentence is laid out means, to me, "There are several prisoners I might be talking about. I am talking about the one that escaped in 2000. That prisoner was caught a few days later." So the who clause is serving to determine a particular prisoner. You might be looking a list of famous escapees, and talking about each of them. If you *already* have a prisoner in mind, and you just want to add additional information - like "That prisoner I was talking about? He escaped in 2000, and was caught a few days later." - then the sentence needs more commas. "The prisoner, who absconded in 2000, was caught a few days later, several hundred kilometers away." Because the who clause *isn't* determinative, it's just a parenthetical, and commas are necessary to make that clear. It turns out there's actually a nice wikipedia section about this very thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_relative_clauses#Restrictive_or_non-restrictive_relative_clauses Without context it's impossible to tell which you mean, so all I've done is add a comma that I think makes the sentence flow better regardless. |
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Thyme likes to sprawl all over a pot, especially in the direction of sunlight. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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Envious colleagues may want to smear you by spreading false gossips about you. Envious colleagues may want to smear you by spreading false gossip Uncountable unless used to mean "a person who likes to gossip". |
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I raked through the pile of papers, but I couldn't find my vocabulary notebook even though it was on top! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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The company's managers refused to ratify the contract proposed by the competition. The company's managers refused to ratify the contract proposed by the competition. I think this is probably okay, but I've only ever heard "ratify" used to refer to treaties between nation states. I might think you were being a bit ironic. Also I'm not really sure about "the competition". It seems unusual for a company to sign a contract with the competition. But hard to say with no context. |
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I could gorge myself on almonds all day if they weren't so expensive and rich in calories. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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People as they get older tend to become less flexible, learn less, become stagnant, causing their career to falter. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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If you want your company to succeed in a highly competitive industry, you must make sure that you undercut your competition in price by several percent or make sure your product is in a way unique. If you want your company to succeed in a highly competitive industry, you must make sure that you undercut your competition in price by several percent or make sure your product is in I very very strongly prefer "some" over "a" here. Weirdly, you could definitely say "make sure there is a/some way in which your product is unique". "a" and "some" both perfectly fine there. But not in yours. Can't explain that :) |
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