Greetings from the land below the wind! Borneo!
Please help me with details on how to solve these grammar problem.
Q.1. One of the greatest of American automobile designer was Harley Earl.
The answer is the plural form designers is required. What concern me is the the word greatest.
Q.2. Fannie Farmer, an educator and cooking expert, she wrote the first distinctively American cookbook.
The answer is the pronoun she is an unnecessary repetition of the subject. Do we need to correct the adverb distinctively.
Q.3. An ant’s antennae provide it with a sense of hear, smell, touch, and taste.
The answer key says hear to hearing. Do we need to change the word touch as well?
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- One of the greatest American automobile designers (one from many that’s why designers should be plural) was Harley Earl.
- Fannie Farmer, an educator and cooking expert, wrote the first distinctive (here you need an adjective and its function is to describe the noun) cookbook.
- An ant’s antennae provide it with a sense of hearing (hear is the verb, but in this case you need a noun. The noun of ‘hear’ is ‘hearing’), smell, touch (touch is correct because it is a noun) and taste.
Kindly note that I am not an expert in English so please wait for other responses.
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Q.1. One of the greatest of American automobile designers was Harley Earl.
The answer is the plural form designers is required. (Yes, the plural is correct)
What concerns me is the the word ‘greatest’. — Why? It is all right.
Q.2. Fannie Farmer, an educator and cooking expert, wrote the first distinctively American cookbook.
The answer is the pronoun she is an unnecessary repetition of the subject. Do we need to correct the adverb distinctively. (Yes, it is incorrect and unnecessary to use two subjects in a single clause/sentence)
Q.3. An ant’s antennae provides it with a sense of hear, smell, touch, and taste.
The answer key says hear to hearing. Do we need to change the word touch as well? (In my opinion, it is not necessary especially when the trend in modern English is to use the root verb form as noun as well)
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Thank you for the grammar tips I will study them again and try to remember the rules.
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Thanks for the advice, I’ll keep in mind to take good command of the eight parts of speech in English.
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This may elucidate Q1 if you consider these two sentences:
A) One of the greatest designers was Harley Earl.
B) The greatest of American automobile designers was Harley Earl.
(I should mention that I would remove “of” from the original question. Thus: “One of the greatest American automobile designers was Harley Earl.” The adjective “greatest” can apply to singular or plural things. For example, “The greatest wines come from the Loire Valley.”
As to Q3, good question. One states ‘sense of hearing’ and ‘sense of touch,’ and that seems to be one of those, ‘That’s just how we say it’ rules. But I guess if you if you really wanted to be consistent (especially in formal writing), you could say, “An ant’s antennae provide it with a sense of hearing, sense of seeing, sense of touching…”
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Thanks for the explanation, this will help me with my writing.
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