Hey guys, I have a few grammar questions. If anyone can take a look at them, that would be great!
Although(A) the old penny-farthing bicycle, with its (B)high front wheel and small back one, was not very fast(C), it must have been (D)fun to ride. No error.(E)
I don’t know why D is correct in this case. I feel like it should be “must be fun to ride”. Is “must have been” subjunctive about the present?
Even (A)after lowering(B) the volume, Suzanne found that her electric guitar so annoyed(C) her neighbors that they (D)complained to the building’s manager. No error.(E)
For this one, I don’t understand why C is correct. Shouldn’t it be something like “her electric guitar annoyed her neighbors so much that…” or “her electric guitar is so annoying to her neighbors that”?
“so annoyed” just sounds awkward to me.
The whole sentence is about the past. The writer is speculating that that this bicycle must have been fun during the age when it was made.
"so annoyed her neighbors" is the equivalent of "annoyed her neighbors so much." The construction is used less commonly today (and almost always in writing) than it was in the past, but it is quite correct. It sounds awkward only because you are not familiar with it.
For the second one it helps to know about the word pair “so… that”. By reading up on word pairs such as the one in the aforementioned problem, you’ll be able to more easily distinguish funny-sounding sentences from grammatically incorrect ones.
Elect for is not the idiom. You might be thinking of “run for.” A person runs for president. A person is simply elected president. This is an example of an [object complement](Object Complement: Explanation and Examples). It follows the same pattern as “We named him Bob” or “Movies make me sad.”
