Part Seven | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
18. ENGLISH USAGE: When speaking of possession, for example a book, the correct forms are: UK: I’ve got a car / I haven’t got a car In British English you can’t omit the word ‘got’ when speaking of possession; therefore you can’t say for example: I have a book/ I haven’t a book. In certain idiomatic phrases, the word ‘got’ is not used in England, therefore the negative form must be ‘don’t have’. UK/US: I have breakfast every day/I don’t have breakfast every day The I have/I haven’t form is used in England only when the verb ‘ to have ‘ is used as an auxillary (and the same for the US) UK/US: I have seen / I haven’t seen In this case, it would be incorrect to use ‘don’t have ’ "shall" vs "will", "should" vs "would" In informal English, one can probably get away with using "who" all the time, except perhaps after a preposition. The prescription for formal English is: use "who" as the subjective form (like "he" / "she" / "they"), and "whom" as a direct or indirect object (like "him" / "her" / "them"): Very few English-speakers make these distinctions instinctively; most of those who observe them learned them explicitly. When to use "the"
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||