Linguist Forum
Languages => Language-specific analysis => English => Topic started by: lingual on May 04, 2014, 01:37:54 AM
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Hi every one
Would you please help me with these two sentences? I think they are ungrammatical, am I right? How can I correct them?
1. Whichever a drug company comes up with something is guaranteed to make a fortune.
2. a reflex action is one that unconsciously controlled.
Thanks a lot.
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I think they can be corrected in the following way:
1. Whichever a drug company comes up with something, it is guaranteed to make a fortune.
2. A reflex action is one that is unconsciously controlled.
Am I right???????
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I think they can be corrected in the following way:
1. Whichever a drug company comes up with something, it is guaranteed to make a fortune.
2. A reflex action is one that is unconsciously controlled.
Am I right???????
What is the first one supposed to mean? "Whichever" is definitely not the correct word, but the replacement/change is not clear to me, because I don't know what meaning you want to express. It could be however, implying the methodology the drug company goes about 'coming up with something', or it could be relating to a specific drug, in which case it'd be better to say whatever a drug company comes up with. So, that can't be answered without more information.
Your second example (with the added is) is the correct one. In some cases you'd want to say reflex action but if you are just using reflex as a quantifier to the type of action in a general sense, then it sounds better (to me) to use reflexive action.
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You need to take 'a' out of the first sentence: Whichever drug company comes up with something is guaranteed to make a fortune
or turn 'whichever' to 'whatever': Whatever a drug company comes up with something is guaranteed to make a fortune
but these two things mean different things.
The second one with added 'is' I agree is correct.