WE all know that when a sentence uses a transitive verb as the operative verb, it's absolutely necessary for the subject to take a direct object and to act on it: "The woman spurned her suitor last ...

English typically uses a strict SUBJECT VERB OBJECT (SVO) word order in simple sentences, as in Students (S) read (V) books (O). This SVO word order becomes altered in many other English sentence ...

When a sentence uses a transitive verb to describe an action, it’s necessary for the subject to take a direct object and to act on it: “The woman spurned her suitor last week.” ...

A few weeks ago I mentioned here a CNN article "about the president making an unannounced stop." Two readers emailed with the same question. Here's Bill in Niskayuna: "I was taught that a noun or ...

If an action concerns only one person or thing, you mention only the person or thing that carries out the action (the subject) and the action itself (the verb). Verbs which describe such actions are ...

Normally there is no change in meaning if we switch from one to the other. In the examples you quote, Ivo, the meaning is exactly the same and we can choose either formulation irrespective of the ...