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Would you check my sentences?

hirashin

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Dear native English speakers,

Would you please proofread my sentences?

1a) I rarely go there.
1b) I seldom go there.

2a) I have no money with me now.
2b) I don't have any money with me now.

3a) I have no friends in Tokyo.
3b) I don't have any friends in Tokyo.

4) There was little coffee left in the cup.

5) My father can hardly speak English.

6) Nobody believed what he said.

7a) The TV news said that President Obama was re-elected.
7b) The TV news showed that President Obama was re-elected.
7c) The TV news told that President Obama was re-elected.

8a) The heavy rain prevented us from going out.
8b) The heavy rain kept us from going out.

9a) E-mail has enabled us to communicate easily with foreign people.
9b) E-mail has let us communicate easily with foreign people.
9c) E-mail has allowed us to communicate easily with foreign people.

10a) A recent survey shows that only children is more common.
10b) A recent survey says that only children is more common.

11a) After I jogged with her, I came to know how she keeps fit.
11b) After I jogged with her, I came to realize how she keeps fit.

12a) I asked my father if he had time to do exercise.
12b) I asked my father if he had time for exercise.

13a) At first I wondered how far we would run.
13b) At first I wondered how much we would run.
13c) At first I wondered how long we would run.

Thanks in advance.

Hirashin
 
1B sounds odd, I believe it is grammatically correct but I rarely see that type of phrasing.
7C) Doesent make sense the verb to tell isnt a good choice, when you use it you usually have something your referring too, if your going to use tell you want to put an object in the sentence. For example

The tv news told THEM that president Obama was re-elected

Im not sure what your trying to express in 10a and 10b, are you trying to say only childs ( as in one child families) are more common?

In english we can say
A recent survey shows that families with one child are more common.

Alot of people also in casual talk can say

A recent survey shows that only child's are more common.

12a) everyone will understand what your saying if you talk to someone but its very weird to put to do exercise considering exercise is already considered doing something take out to do so it becomes

I asked my father if he had time to exercise.

Dont see anything else wrong they seem to make sense from my perspective
 
wilingo, with respect, your reply is littered with basic errors. I really don't think you should be attempting to answer questions on English language usage.
 
Thank you for the help, willingo.

Eeky, I think that willingo is confused "your" with "you're". Has he
made any other mistakes?

Hirashin
 
I have made quite a few mistakes sorry , I was typing fast and in slang and failed to realize you are learning the language my apologies. Too much time on the internet makes you type that way haha.
 
hirashin said:
Eeky, I think that willingo is confused "your" with "you're". Has he
made any other mistakes?
Click to expand...
Yes, many! But concentrating only on your sentences:

1b) This sounds fine to me.

10) I'm afraid I cannot accept "A recent survey shows that only child's are more common", even if the errant apostrophe is deleted.

12a) This sounds OK to me.

Additionally, in (7), I would normally prefer "... President Obama had been re-elected", though what you have written is not actually wrong. FYI, (13b) is probably talking about frequency or cumulative amount of running, rather than distance on one occasion. (13c) is probably talking about time, though to me it does not seem a great sentence.

I am a BrE speaker. Some differences may be a result of regional variations.
 
1b is indeed correct, but I was just pointing out that he should not use that often as it is very wordy, and can be said in a better manner, it is totally fine though.

10) A recent survey shows that only child's are more common, you are right this is not correct in a written work however in speech it can be said and understood completely and it is not erroneous in spoken language.

12a) This does not sound ok to me the to do part is simply filler and does not need to be there. Just take it out, it serves no purpose to make the sentence any more clear, when one exercises it is implied it is an action therefore a doing verb is not necessary.

I agree with eeky on the point concerning number seven though.
 
Thanks for the help. willingo and eeky. And who is buklau? Are you the same person as willingo?

Eeeky, I have some questions. Do (10a) and (10b) sound good to you? Its original sentence goes like this:
(10c) A recent survey shows that only children are more common in modern families.

How about these?
(10d) A recent survey shows that families with only children are increasing in number.
(10e) A recent survey shows that the number of families with only children are increasing.

Willing presented "A recent survey shows that families with one child are more common."
Does this sentence sound good to you, eeky ? Can you say both "families with only child"
and "families with only children"?

Hirashin
 
"only child" (singular) and "only children" (plural) are correct terms for children with no brothers or sisters. To be grammatical, (10a) and (10b) should read "... only children are more common". However, care is needed when using "only children" in a sentence because the result may be easy to misread. For me, this is a risk with all your suggestions (10a) though (10e). For example, I initially read "A recent survey shows that only children are more common" as meaning "children are the only things that are more common".

In my opinion it is clearer to refer to "families with only one child".

hirashin said:
Willing presented "A recent survey shows that families with one child are more common."
Does this sentence sound good to you, eeky ?
Click to expand...
Yes, provided the answer to the question "more common than what?" is apparent from the context. I have a slight preference for "only one child".

hirashin said:
Can you say both "families with only child"
Click to expand...
No, that is ungrammatical.

hirashin said:
"families with only children"
Click to expand...
That is correct English but may suffer from the problem that I mentioned before.
 
Families with only children? No pets?
 
willingo said:
10) A recent survey shows that only child's are more common, you are right this is not correct in a written work however in speech it can be said and understood completely and it is not erroneous in spoken language.
Click to expand...
If you are saying that people use "only childs" as a plural of "only child" then that most definitely is erroneous. (And even if the plural of "child" was "childs", which it isn't, it would not have an apostrophe. Apostrophe s should never be used for plurals except, debatably, in certain "not a proper word" cases such as writing the plural of the letter "a".)
 
Thank you for the help, eeky.


OK. Then how about these?

(10f) A recent survey shows that families with only one child are increasing in number.
(10g) A recent survey shows that the number of families with only one child is increasing.
(10h) A recent survey shows that there are more and more families with only one child.

Hirashin
 
Yes, these are all OK.
 
Thanks, eeky.

Eeky, would you please look at my thread "Her family eat bread every day"?

Hirashin
 
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