DAILY GRAMMAR (DG) 14-04-2018
1. He has no any other thing to do today. (No)
He has nothing else to do today. (Yes)
He doesn’t have anything else to do today. (Yes)
(The use of “any” in the example above is wrong; what is meant by the clumsy phrase, “no any other thing”, is fully embedded in “nothing”.)
2. My university was found in 1975. (No)
My university was founded in 1975. (Yes)
(The past tense of the irregular verb, “find”, which means to get something by searching or chance, is “found”. Moreover, “found” is a regular verb that means “to establish”, which is the right choice in this case.)
3. My friend is good in Mathematics. (No)
My friend is good at Mathematics. (Yes)
(“Good at” is used to express being “skilled in something”. For example, you may be good at singing while she may be at dancing. “Good for” is used to express usefulness. For example, “DG capsules are good for everyone”; “this medicine is good for cough”. “Good with” is used to express “capable of caring for”. For example, “grandmas are good with children”; “senior nurses are good with old patients.”)
Did You Know?
There are estimated 2.5 billion words in the Oxford English corpus but an average person knows about 50,000 words. The person knows that much because everyday words like “you”, “I”, “to”, “this”, etc. constitute 25% of English.