Style in Written English 1

Question

1. an asking; inquiry
2. something that is asked; interrogative sentence, as in seeking to learn or in testing another's knowledge; query
3. doubt; uncertainty: no question of his veracity
4. something in controversy before a court
5. a problem; matter open to discussion or inquiry
6. a matter or case of difficulty: not a question of money
1. a point being debated or a resolution brought up for approval or rejection before an assembly
2. the procedure of putting such a matter to a vote

noun

1. The definition of a question is the asking of something.
   An example of question is, "What are we having for dinner tonight?"

verb

1. Question is defined as to ask something or to doubt something.
1. An example of question is for a parent to ask his child when he plans to be home.
2. An example of question is for a child to express concern about whether Santa Claus is real.

Sequence of Tenses

Tenses are verbs that describe when an event, action or condition has occurred. There are three types of tenses based on the time:

1. Past Tense
2. Present Tense
3. Future Tense

Each of these has 4 aspects which indicate the continuation of the tenses. So, there are in total 12 tenses that are regularly used in English Grammar. Now let us learn the Sequence of Tenses.

One basic rule we must remember at the time of using tenses with principle and subordinate clauses are that the subordinate clause always follows the tense in the principal clause. However, there are exceptions to this rule which we will see as we go by.

(Source: Pinterst)

Rule 1

A past tense in the principal clause is always followed by a past tense in the subordinate clause. Example: I found out that she was out of town.

However, there is an exception to this rule. When the principal clause in the past tense, the subordinate clause can be in the present tense if it is citing a universal truth. Example: The children were taught that honesty is the best policy.

Another exception to this rule is when the word ‘than’ is used in the sentence to introduce the subordinate clause. In this case, we can use any tense with the subordinate clause irrespective of the tense used with the principal clause.

Rule 2

If the tense used with the principal clause is in the present or future tense, the tense of the subordinate clause can be in any tense based on what needs to be conveyed.

Example: She is saying that she is alright. She says she is fine.

Rule 3

When we use the principal clause in the future tense, we do not use subordinating clauses in the future tense and use the subordinating clause beginning with when, until, before, after etc.

Example: I will call you when dinner is ready. I shall wait until you return.

Rule 4

When the subordinate clause is introduced with the conjunction ‘that’, we do the following,

• We use ‘may’ in the subordinate clause when the principal clause is in the present tense.  AND
• We use ‘might’ in the subordinate clause when the principal clause is in the past tense.

Example: We eat that we may live. She tried to live so that he might have a chance at life.

Rule 5

When some phrases such as If only, Wish that, What if, It is time are used, the clauses that follow it are always in the past tense.

Example: I wish I could eat another ice cream.

say OR tell?

The verbs say and tell have similar meanings. They both mean "to communicate verbally with someone". But we often use them differently.

The simple way to think of say and tell is:

• You say something
• You tell someone something

You say something	You tell someone something
Ram said that he was tired.	Ram told Jane that he was tired.
Anthony says you have a new job.	Anthony tells me you have a new job.
Tara said: "I love you."	Tara told John that she loved him.

But, of course, it is not always so easy. Here are a few rules to help you.

Personal object
We usually follow tell with a personal object (the person that we are speaking to). We usually use say without a personal object:

• She told me that she loved John.
• She said that she loved John.
• He told everybody that he had to leave.
• He said that he had to leave.

Say "to someone"
With say, we sometimes use "to someone":

• He said to me that he was tired.
• Tara said to Ram that he had done very well.
• Anthony said to her, "I hope you come soon."
• "I'd like to sleep," she said to him quietly.

Direct speech
We can use say with direct speech. We use tell only with direct speech that is an instruction or information:

• Amanda said, "Hello John. How are you?"
• "That's great," she said.
• He told her: "Open the door quietly."
• She told me, "I have never been to England."

We can use say with direct questions, but we cannot use tell:

• She said: "Do you love me?"
• The policeman said to the prisoner, "Where were you at 8pm?"

Pronoun Antecedent
A pronoun antecedent is a word that comes before a pronoun to which the pronoun refers. Following are definitions of antecedent as well as a review about the types of pronoun, information about the functions of an antecedent in a sentence, and examples of how to use in a sentence.
Defining a Pronoun Antecedent

• Compound subjects can be a problem. If the subjects are joined by an "and" then the pronoun needs to be plural, as in "Bob and Paul took their books. If the subjects are joined by "or" or "nor", then have the pronoun agree with the subject that is closer, or closest, to the pronoun. An example is "Either the actor or the singers messed up their performance.

• If the pronoun is referring to one thing or a unit, like a team or a jury, then the pronoun needs to be singular. An example is: "The jury has reached its verdict." Sometimes words sound plural and are not, like measles or the news. These would need a singular pronoun, as in: "Measles is not as widespread as it once was." This makes sense if you replace the word "measles" with "disease."

Indefinite Pronouns That Are Antecedents
Pronoun Review

• Subjective personal pronouns are the subject of the sentence and are:

• Objective personal pronouns are the object of a preposition, verb, or infinitive phrase. These are:

• Possessive personal pronouns show ownership. They are:

The word "antecedent" means something that precedes something else. In language, it is the word that a pronoun refers back to. Since the pronoun replaces the noun, it has to agree in number. So, if the antecedent, or word that comes before, is singular, then the pronoun that takes its place must also be singular.

It can be confusing if there are several words between the pronoun and its antecedent. These words or clauses have no bearing on the words and they need to be ignored.

Following are some special situations with examples of the correct way to have pronoun antecedent agreement.

There are several rules concerning the use of indefinite pronouns as antecedents and the pronoun antecedent agreement. The following indefinite pronouns are singular and need a singular pronoun: one, no one, some one, everyone, anyone, nobody, anybody, somebody, everybody, nothing, anything, something, everything, each, either, neither. An example is "Everything here has its own box."

The plural indefinite pronouns: several, both, few, and many, need to have a plural pronoun, like in this sentence: "Several are there because of their looks."

Lastly, if there is an indefinite pronoun that is being modified by a prepositional phrase, then the object of the phrase will determine the agreement between the pronoun and its antecedent. These special indefinite pronouns are: some, most, all, any, or none. Look at these two sentences: "Most of the flour fell out of its canister" and "Many of the gems have lost their shine". If the object, like "flour" is uncountable, then the pronoun has to be singular (its). If the object is countable, like "gems", then the pronoun needs to be plural (their).

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or another pronoun. Personal pronouns substitute for a certain thing or person and are classified by subjective, objective, and possessive:

I, we, you, he, she, it, and they

me, us, you, him, her, it, and them

mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, and theirs

Demonstrative pronouns identify and point to the noun or pronoun. They are:

this, that, these, and those

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask a question. These are:

who, whom, what, which whoever, whomever, whatever, and whichever

Relative pronouns link clauses or phrases to the rest of the sentence. It could be:

who, whoever, whom, whomever, that, which, and whichever

Indefinite pronouns are not specific and refer to all, some, or none. There are many of these, and a few are:

one, few, any, nobody, anything, and everything

Reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject of a clause or sentence. These are:

myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves

Intensive pronouns emphasize and intensify the word preceding it. They are the same as the reflexive pronouns. An example is "I myself could not believe it."

DANGLING CONSTRACTION

A dangling modifier or misplaced modifier^[1] is a type of ambiguous grammatical construct whereby a grammatical modifier could be misinterpreted as being associated with a word other than the one intended, or with no particular word at all. For example, a writer may have meant to modify the subject, but word order used means that the modifier appears to modify an object instead. Such ambiguities can lead to unintentional humor, or, in formal contexts, difficulty in comprehension.

Take, for example, the sentence Turning the corner, a handsome school building appeared.^[2] The modifying clause Turning the corner is clearly supposed to describe the behavior of the narrator (or other observer), but grammatically it appears to apply either to nothing in particular, or to the "handsome school building".

Similarly, in the sentence At the age of eight, my family finally bought a dog,^[3] the modifier At the age of eight "dangles": it is not attached to the subject of the main clause, and could imply that it was the family that was eight years old when it bought the dog, or even that the dog was eight when it was bought, rather than the intended meaning of giving the narrator's age at the time the family "finally bought a dog".

Source : 

https://www.yourdictionary.com/question
https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/cw-say-tell.htm
https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/pronouns/pronoun-antecedent.html