In this blog, the students will find all the topics on English Grammar: subject and predicate, parts of speech like nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, interjections, and other topics like Clauses: subordinate and principal; dependent and independent clauses; noun clauses, adjective clauses, adverbial clauses; types of phrases, change of voice: Active and Passive Voice; determiners, direct and indirect speech, types of sentences: Simple, complex and compound
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Which is correct, “hospital” or “the hospital”?
Which is correct, “hospital” or “the hospital”? I've heard "He is going to the hospital." and "he is going to hospital." I've often wondered if one is incorrect.
There are certain buildings whose primary function varies. For example, in a hospital, people go for treatment. If these buildings are used for their primary function, in that case, ‘the’ is ‘’
omitted.
But if the speaker visits the place for not the primary function, the article ‘the’ is used.
Example:
Last night I visited a hospital. ( Here's the visit is for treatment.)
Last night I visited the hospital.
(Here, the visit is meant for seeing a patient or any other function than medical treatment.
I go to office daily at 9 a.m.
I go to school daily.
Is there a difference in meaning between these two sentences
Is there a difference in meaning between these two sentences, "I was watching a movie BY eating some popcorn" and "I was watching a movie eating some popcorn"? Is adding or removing the "by" make a difference in meaning? If not, are they the same?
Yes, there is a difference in meaning between the two sentences:
1. "I was watching a movie by eating some popcorn."
- This suggests that eating some popcorn is the method by which you were watching the movie. It implies a cause-and-effect relationship where eating popcorn is instrumental to watching the movie, which doesn't quite make logical sense since eating popcorn is not a method for watching a movie. This sentence is grammatically correct but semantically odd.
2. "I was watching a movie eating some popcorn."
- This simply describes two actions happening at the same time: watching a movie and eating some popcorn. It means that while you were watching the movie, you were also eating popcorn. This sentence is natural and commonly used.
So, adding "by" introduces a method or means relationship which is not appropriate in this context, whereas omitting "by" just describes simultaneous actions, which makes sense here. Therefore, the sentences are not the same, and the removal of "by" changes the meaning to a more logical and natural one.
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