From Ang Kok Weng: Is it right to say: "It is rare that he left early at work yesterday"?
The short answer is "No, there are a few errors." There are several things going on in this sentence that are working against each other.
1. The word rare is an adjective that answers the question How often? It's more commonly used cousin is the adverb rarely. For these frequency words*, the most common verb tense is the simple present tense. Therefore, It is rare is correct. However, the word yesterday at the end of the sentence doesn't match. (rarely = present / yesterday = past)
To fix this, there are two options. First, as Grammar Girl suggested on her FB page, put the emphasis on leaving early and de-emphasize rare by putting it in an adjective clause. The second option is to contrast the usual and the unusual with but.
2. Most verbs of motion, like come and go, are intransitive** so the are usually followed by a preposition, as in go to or come from. However, leave is often used as a transitive** verb, so no preposition is needed. The correct phrase is left work.
3. The location of the adverb early is also awkward. It is true that adverbs can go in many different places in a sentence, but the one place they CAN'T go is between the verb and its object. That's like separating a mother bear from her cub. Never a good idea. Adverbs of time almost always go first or last.
Put all three of these together and here are my recommendations.
- Yesterday, he left work early, which is rare.
- He rarely leaves work early, but yesterday he left right after lunch.
If you choose the but option, it is necessary to add the specific information of how early?
From Zanna Jay: Which one is correct? "Did he know?" Or "Did he knew?"
"Did he know?" is the only choice. "Did he knew?" can never be correct. This mistake is what I call the Double ~ed. It is the fraternal twin of the Double ~s.
In the simple past tense, you need to add ~ed to regular*** verbs, as in liked and dripped. In the third person singular, when the subject is either she, he or it, you must add ~s to the verb in the simple present tense, as in likes and drips. Simple enough, right?
In a simple present tense question, you need the helping verb do in front of the subject. Therefore, They know... becomes Do they know...? Again, very simple. However, it can be confusing when you combine the two.
Think of the helping verb do as the greedy little kid who never has his own toys, has to collect all of the other toys and won't share them with any of the other kids. Start with these simple sentences.
- He knew the answer.
- He knows the answer.
They are playing happily in the sandbox with their ~s and their ~ed. Then the big bully Do shows up.
- Do he knew the answer?
- Do he knows the answer?
Do sees the ~s and the ~ed and immediately wants them. So do runs over and grabs them away, leaving the correct English grammar.
- Did he know the answer?
- Does he know the answer?
My term Double ~ed or Double ~s refers to when Do brings his own toy and leaves the main verb with theirs.
- XXX Did he knew the answer? (do + ~ed) and (know + ~ed)
- XXX Does he knows the answer? (d0 + ~s) and (know + ~s)
It's just not in Do's nature to share. It just doesn't work. (And, by the way, Do is just as greedy in negative sentences. Never say "I didn't knew..." or "She doesn't knows..."
From Zanna Jay: Which is correct? "She got killed"? Or "She get killed"?
"She got killed" has to be correct for two reasons. First, for the second one, since it is in the simple present tense, you would need to add an ~s, as in "She gets killed." Second, except for cats and vampires, people can only die once. "She gets killed" has the idea that it can happen again and again. (See above for frequency.) Unless you plan to actually kill this person, I assume that you are reporting someone's death, which happened in the past.
For me, an even more interesting question is "What is the difference between She got killed and She was killed?"
She was killed is the passive voice and both of these have the same meaning. It is common in informal English to replace the be verb with get. (You shouldn't do this in formal situations, though.) Look at these simple sentences.
- It is dark
- It suddenly got dark.
The first sentence with is simply describes the current situation. However, the second sentence with got emphasizes the change, from light to dark. Similarly, She was killed states a simple fact, but She got killed adds the idea of the change from alive to dead. Another example would be:
- The room was cleaned.
- The room got cleaned.
I might be the only person interested in this last part, but thank you once again to Ang Kok Wen and Zanna Jay for giving me the opportunity to stretch my grammar a little bit. As they say in Hawaii, A hui ho! (Until we meet again.)
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*Frequency words answer the question How often? They include never, always, occasionally, often, once in a while and frequently. These words usually indicate that the simple present tense should be used.
**A transitive verb is a verb that must have a direct object. An intransitive verb is a verb that cannot have an object. For example:
- I dropped my pencil.
- My pencil fell to the floor.
Drop is a transitive verb because I must explain what I dropped. Fall is an intransitive verb so it is followed by a preposition.
***For an irregular verb, the ~ed form does not actually have ~ed. To me, knew is the ~ed form of know.
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