Grammar Question

Was, in relation to 'It' is correct.

'It were discovered...' ??

I meant the second "was".

I would have said the second "was" should be "were", but maybe we should wait for the final arbiter of English grammar (Queen's or not) to show up tell us the right answer.

The 3.5 million kilogrammes of carbon dioxide is a weight, therefore "was" is correct. 3.5 million 1 Kg cylinders of carbon dioxide are a countable quantity, therefore "were".

3.5 million Kg is the same as 3500 metric tonnes which sounds less sensational, so depending on which side of the GW debate you are on, it might be preferable...

"Carbon dioxide was released"--singular subject, singular verb form.

Next?

I would say, "3.5 millon kilogrammes of carbon dioxide" is meant as a discrete quantity, and therefore takes a singular verb.

Re: Grammar Question


This kind of ambiguity happens all the time, but I think when the meaning is clear, we should accept it, as in this case.
When the meaning is actually ambiguous, usually a more involved and unlovely form of words is necessary to make the intended meaning clear.
Personally I'm all for simplicity.

So, is, "amongst the crowd" wrong because a crowd is one thing? As in "You can see them amongst the crowd".

And this sentence: "It was discovered that 3.5 million kilograms of carbon dioxide was emitted over a 24 hour period along a 600 kilometre road" is fine with regard to the dangling (or not) participle?

Why are you bothered about this? You can say "in the crowd" as well as "amongst the crowd" so I suppose the concept of "crowd" can be singular or many, but personally I don't think it matters.



I don't understand the question but the sentence is fine.

What is a dangling or not participle? No, don't tell me, I feel the knowledge will not make me any happier.

Ok, I won't bore you with participles. Something about the sentence "It is possible to discern demarcations amongst the crowd" seems wrong to me, but I can't say exactly what.

Another question : "I have an unfortnate announcement"- surely the announcement can't be unfortunate, can it?

I know this comes across as splitting hairs and making mountains out of mole hills (yes, yes, cliches), but I was just wondering about this, and it's eating me at the back of my mind.

"Amongst" goes with plural objects whereas "within" would be better for a collective noun such as crowd, herd, flock perhaps?



Yes it can easily. These are all possible sysnonyms of "unfortunate" -- it doesn't just mean "unlucky" or "ill-fated" -- and at least the ones in bold, it seems to me, could be applied to an announcement:

abortive, afflictive, apocalyptic, awful, awkward, bad[/b], badly off, baleful, baneful, black, bodeful, boding, bootless, calamitous, catastrophic, cursed, dark, deplorable, depressed, dire, disastrous, dismal, distressing, disturbing, donsie, doomed, doomful, dreary, evil, evil-starred, failed, failing, fatal, fateful, foreboding, forlorn, fortuneless, fruitless, funest, futile, gloomy, graceless, grievous, hapless, hard-luck guy, hardcase, heartbreaking, ill, ill off, ill-advised, ill-boding, ill-chosen, ill-considered, ill-fated, ill-omened, ill-seasoned, ill-starred, ill-suited, ill-timed, impolitic, improper, in adverse circumstances, inadvisable, inappropriate, inapt, inauspicious, incongruous, inconvenient, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, inept, inexpedient, infelicitous, inopportune, intempestive, intrusive, irrelevant, lame, lamentable, late, loser, lowering, luckless, mal a propos, malapropos, malefic, manque, menacing, miscarried, miscarrying, miserable, mistimed, of evil portent, of no effect, off base, ominous, out of line, out of luck, out of phase, out of place, out of time, pathetic, pitiable, planet-struck, poor, poor unfortunate, portending, portentous, premature, regrettable, ruinous, sad, sad sack, schlemiel, schlimazel, short of luck, sinister, sombre, star-crossed, starred, stickit, stillborn, successless, sure loser, terrible, threatening, too late, too soon, tragic, unbefitting, unblessed, underprivileged, undesirable, unfavorable, unfit, unfitting, unhandy, unhappy, unlucky, unmeet, unprofitable, unpromising, unpropitious, unprosperous, unprovidential, unready, unripe, unseasonable, unseemly, unsuccessful, unsuitable, untimely, untoward, unwise, upsetting, useless, victim, woebegone, woeful, wretched, wrong

Thanks contrex, and thank-you very much every one who answered my anal questions