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<li><br>
Does if = whether ? What about the phrase whether if, how should it be used in comparison to if and whether ? </li>
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<p>2.</p>
<p>Grapes, mangoes, and oranges are widely considered delicious fruits, but it is in fact the banana that is shown by many surveys to be the [more popular] fruit in the world</p>
<p>more popular is incorrect, and is therefore the answer</p>
<p>Whats the rule with most/more? Most obviously sounded so much better, but more deals with comparison. If it didnt end with in the world, would more popular be correct? Because It is being compared to the orange/grapes/mangoes. </p>
<p>3.</p>
<p>Prior to the election of Henry Cisneros as mayor of San Antonio in 1981, no major city in the US [had had] a mayor [from Mexican descent].</p>
<p>[from Mexican descent] is incorrect because it should be OF Mexican descent</p>
<p>The [had had] really threw me off, and I was focusing so much on it that I missed the obvious phrase error of ____ descent. It has to deal with past perfect and whatever participle tenses im really confused. </p>
<p>4.
Another tense problem</p>
<p>My brother [had a talent for] juggling, as though he had been born with exceptional hand eye coordination</p>
<p>My brother [had been good at] juggling, as though he had been born with exceptional hand eye coordination </p>
<p>1st is correct.</p>
<p>Why is had been inappropriate? </p>
<p>5.
French mountain honey made from linden blossoms, which are sometimes called lime blossoms, [have] a [distinctively] citrus flavor</p>
<p>have is wrong due to a subject/verb disagreement</p>
<p>But what about [distinctively]? I understand that it works because it is an adverb modifying an adjective citrus. Would distinct work as well? </p>
<p>6.
Is Reason is because an incorrect phrase? Is it ALWAYS Reason . Is that?
IRREGULAR PAST PARTICIPLES. </p>
<p>7.
No one was more pleased than [I/Me] when we heard that .
I is correct. </p>
<p>Well I thought no one was the subject, making me the object but apparently not? How does it work? I guess me isnt the object because it is not receiving the action of the verb pleased (it doesnt even take an object in the first place lol).
But, in the phrase He is better than me is correct, so why is it I in the question above?</p>
In sentences like I want to know if you are available Friday night and She asked him if he would like fries with that, “if” precisely means “whether.” So they are interchangeable, but “whether” is considered more formal (more “correct” in formal writing, as opposed to casual writing). “if vs. whether” probably wouldn’t be tested on the SAT. And the phrase “whether if” isn’t an actual meaningful phrase. I can see it being correct only when the “if” is not connected to the “whether”: I want to know whether, if you don’t mind me asking, you are free Friday night. Otherwise I think you are mistaken in thinking “whether if” is a particular phrase.
There are four things in the comparison: grapes, mangoes, oranges, and bananas. When there are three or more things being compared, you use most: Bananas are the most popular of the four. When there are only two things being compared, you use more: Between grapes and bananas, bananas are the more popular fruit.
The first “had” signals the past perfect (as in I had eaten a lot every day before I decided to lose weight). The second “had” is a past participle, which [a past participle] always follows “had” or “have” in past or perfect constructions. The second “had” just represents the normal word in the past tense: I had a jacket on that day. </p>
<p>I will explain to you the present perfect tense, and then I will follow up with the past perfect tense. Hopefully after you’ve read the following two paragraphs you’ll have learned how the two tenses work.</p>
<p>Remember, the present perfect tense deals with a long period of time in the past in connection to the present. So if you had a time machine and you went back to the year 1980 and you say It is 1980, and no major city in the US has had a mayor of Mexican descent, you are saying that in the past, there was never a Mexican mayor of a major city. You are saying that this is true leading up to the “present” (1980). So no major city ever had a Mexican mayor. No major city has had a Mexican mayor.</p>
<p>So when you use the past perfect tense, you are saying that what is being acknowledged does NOT lead up to the present. In fact, you are saying that it stops sometimes in the past (hence it is called past perfect in contrast to present perfect). My example in the above paragraph uses the year 1980 because Prior to the election of Henry Cisneros as mayor of San Antonio in 1981, no major city in the US had had a mayor of Mexican descent is saying that the first Mexican mayor of a major city was elected in 1981. So put yourself in 1980 again: As soon as Henry Cisneros is elected in 1981, the statement is no longer true No major city has had a mayor of Mexican descent, because the event of his election is now part of the past and the present, so you obviously can’t say in the past leading up to the present there was never a Mexican mayor of a major city. But after the fact, AFTER Henry Cisneros’s election, if you want to acknowledge the fact that there was no Mexican mayor of a major city before him (and in doing so acknowledge the fact that Henry Cisneros was the first), you change the present perfect to the past perfect: Prior to 1981, no major city in the US had had a mayor of Mexican descent. Another way of saying that is Prior to 1981, there had never been a mayor of Mexican descent. Don’t let the second “had” confuse you. It’s still the past perfect tense. The past participle just happens to look the same as the first “had.”</p>
<p>Here are some more examples:
No rapper has sold as many albums as Eminem. (PRESENT PERFECT: Eminem is the best selling rapper today.)</p>
<p>Tupac had been the best selling rapper until Eminem surpassed him in total sales in 2009. (PAST PERFECT: Tupac used to be the best selling rapper before 2009.)
The past perfect is inappropriate because there is no marking point as to when the brother STOPPED being good at juggling. In the sentence Tupac had been the best selling rapper until Eminem surpassed him in total sales, the marking point is when Eminem surpassed him. If you take that part out and simply say Tupac had been the best selling rapper, if there is no appropriate context telling you what the marking point is, then it would be inappropriate to use the past perfect. The simple past tense is perhaps “simple” for a reason: It does not require any context. You are only talking about a past event when you use the simple past: Tupac was the best selling rapper (at one time).
Both “distinct” and “distinctively” would be correct, but the two sentences wouldn’t mean the same exact thing:
CORRECT: “French mountain honey has a distinct citrus flavor.”
MEANING: French mountain honey has a citrus flavor that is distinct. It tastes like citrus, and its flavor is distinct from other honeys’ flavors.</p>
<p>CORRECT: “French mountain honey has a distinctively citrus flavor.”
MEANING: French mountain honey has a flavor that is citrus in a distinct way. The citrusness of the flavor is distinct.
The first sentence is saying that the honey has a citrus flavor that is distinct. The second sentence is specifically saying that the citrusness of the flavor is what makes it distinct. This makes sense because “distinctively,” an adverb, modifies the adjective “citrus.” So it is citrus in a distinct way. The citrusness of the flavor is a distinguishing trait.
Yes, The reason I ran is because I got scared is technically incorrect, and The reason I ran is that I got scared is correct.
No one was more pleased than I is correct, but No one was more pleased than me is also correct. The former uses “than” as a conjunction (so what follows is an independent clause, in this case *I was pleased<a href=“or%20%5Bi%5DI%20was%5B/i%5D”>/i</a>, where “was pleased” is omitted and implied). The latter uses “than” as a preposition (so what follows is a noun, in this case me). THAN AS A CONJUNCTION: “No one was more pleased than I.” THAN AS A CONJUNCTION: “No one was more pleased than I was.” THAN AS A CONJUNCTION:“No one was more pleased than I was pleased.”
(All three of these sentences mean the same exact thing; they just differ in what words are left out or kept in.)</p>
<p>THAN AS A PREPOSITION: “No one was more pleased than me.”
Both of these usages are standard in English. Reputable writers have been using both for centuries. But some people object to people who use than as a preposition. I don’t think the SAT would test you something like this.</p>