The Homework Help Thread

[*KATE*]

hey does anyone know much about year 12 Algebra?

[~Rosey~]

Nope, i'm in Year 8. what a big help I am ;)

[*KATE*]

well i no alot of year 8 considering i did it twice!!! (once in year 2 and again in year 4)

[-Laura-]

Anyone fancy writing me an essay on Retributivism vs Reductivism worth 40% of an overall grade for first year degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice studies with Psychology?!

No didnt think so back to looking for useful information on useless websites! lol Grr! lol

[*KATE*]

i dont even understand what retributivism vz reductivism is????? gud luck with that aye

[Eli]

I need some help because once again I disagree with my English teacher, and he won't listen to me!

This time the sentence he wrote was

"Arsenal, who comes from..." (the rest not relevant)

And I said you have more than one option in this sentence, but the one he wrote is not one of them.

The way I think it is you can do it in these ways:

1. Refer to Arsenal as a group of people, but I mean if you do that you have to use "that" or "which" instead of "who" because it's a group (a thing, not a person. A group is not a he or a she, so therefore you can't use "who"). If you do this the sentence would be "Arsenal which/that comes from..."

2. You can refer to Arsenal as the players on the team, not as a group but plural (a bit hard to explain) but if you do that I mean you can use "who" because you're referring to people/humans, NOT a group (thing) but that's plural and I think the sentence should be "Arsenal who come from..."

I guess the bottom line is the use of who/which/that and wheter the verb should be referring to a plural object/subject/whatever, you know whether it should be "come" or "comes"

Almost everyone in my class agreed with me, but my English teacher claims he's right, and I'm not letting this go until I know whether I'm right or wrong.

Can anyone please help me out here?

Thanks in advance.

[Emma_B]

Well my (far too) extensive knowledge of grammar and I would definitely use "Arsenal, who come from..." The first of your options "Arsenal, which comes from" is not quite right (and sounds a bit odd). It would be better to say, in that instance, "The football team Arsenal, which comes from..." If you don't specify that Arsenal is a team, it is wrong.

Attempt at explanation of this:

Bear with me, and feel free to zone out at any time!

"who", "which" and "that" are relative pronouns, which are used to introduce relative clauses, which are a form of subordinate clauses. A clause is defined as a part of a sentence with a verb and its complements (everything the verb needs to make it make sense, e.g. a subject and an object, and any prepositions etc). A subordinate clause cannot form a sentence in its own right, IT IS DEPENDENT ON ANOTHER, main clause:

That is my friend. - Main clause, makes perfect sense.

That is my friend, who I was telling you about. - Main clause followed by subordinate clause, makes perfect sense.

*Who I was telling you about. - Subordinate clause, not a sentence.

Relative clauses are either defining or non-defining.

Non-defining relative clauses describe the object in question. These must be placed within commas:

"The woman's hat, which was bright orange, was very ugly."

The relative clause describes the hat.

Defining relative clauses identify the object in quesion. They are not placed within commas:

"The woman who is standing by the window is wearing an ugly hat."

The relative clause identifies which woman is being spoken about.

That, who or which:

"That": can be used to refer to persons or things, and is only used in defining clauses.

"Who": refers to persons only, in defining or non-defining clauses.

"Which" refers to things only, in defining or non-defining clauses.

THIS IS THE PART THAT IS ACTUALLY RELEVANT!!!

Arsenal...

Your example contains a non-defining clause, therefore we can discount "that".

Whether Arsenal is a group of persons or a team is a matter of stylistic choice. If they are persons, you should use "who". If it is a team, you should use "which".

Then, it is just a matter of making the verb "agree" with the subject:

A group of people requires the plural form of the verb, therefore:

"Arsenal, who come from..."

A team is a singular noun, and requires a singular verb, therefore:

"Arsenal, which comes from..."

Therefore you are right. Sorry it was so long-winded, but I thought I might as well give a full explanation in case anyone was interested. I'm sure no one was, but never mind... And personally, I still prefer "who come from" unless you have specified that Arsenal is a football team. Hope it helped

[Eli]

Thank you very much! That's almost exactly what I told him, but he kept saying you could use "who comes".

Your explanation really helped as well because even though it explains the same as our book does you explain it in a lot easier way, so now maybe he can see what I tried to explain to him

I seem to end up dicussing with him almost every English class because I always disagree with sentences he's writing and claiming to be correct

[Emma_B]

I really hate it when people won't admit they are wrong, especially about grammar! It is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Especially as I spend so much of my time studying the hateful subject - curse of the language student! It's a case of, "Well if I have to learn it, then everyone else has to as well!"

[Eli]

Sorry to be back and bugging you again, but I need some help with some homework about Northern Ireland.

The task is pretty easy if you know a bit about Ireland, but I don't...

The task is to connect the expressions with the correct explanations:

The expressions: Sinn Fein, Orange Order, RUC, Falls Road, Shankhill road, Unionist, UVF, Stormont, Ulster, Eire.

The explanations: The Irish republic, Loyalist paramilitary organisation, The largest protestant organisation, seat of government in Northern Ireland, Catholic area in Belfast, Republican political party, the police force in Northern Ireland, a Loyalist, Protestant area in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The colors are just to make it clearer where one expression/explanation begins, ends and another begins.

Thanks in advance!