Writing singular and plural sentences depends on the context obviously but which prefer, as in the sentences below. How you have written them..

1. Teenagers influences are his friends.
A teenager’s influences is his friends.

Which proposition is best suited in theses sentences, on or in.

2. I need to read chapters on or in the books of history, child development, and real estate

Please revise this sentence and let me know what pronoun to use to refer to more than once person.

3. What did you buy at whatever places or place it is that you [(more than two people) all of you] go (or went)

Why is “of” not correct for this sentence?

4. It’s up to Buzz, Mr Potato Head, Hamm, Rex and Slinky Dog to rescue their friend and
remind him (of) what being a toy is all about

I sort of have an understanding how to use verbs would, would have, have had, should have had, and the past tense, past participle. Would you please give examples on how to use these verbs.

What is the difference between the verbs in brackets in sentence 5 and 5a?

5. My mother [would slap] me on the face if I [would mention] something about her past.

5a. My mother [slapped] me on the face if [mentioned] something about her past.

I would love if you (what pronoun do I use here if I do not address a specific person) gave me some tips for improving my writing.

Last Edited on 3-Oct-2008 6:03 PM

Teenagers [plural] influences are their friends.
A teenager's [singular] influences are his friends.

In both sentences "influences" is plural, so you need "are."

Which proposition is best suited in theses sentences, on or in.

2. I need to read chapters on or in the books of history, child development, and real estate

I need to read chapters in the books on history, child development, and real estate.

The chapters are actually inside the books. The books are on (about) subjects.

Please revise this sentence and let me know what pronoun to use to refer to more than once person.

3. What did you buy at whatever places or place it is that you [(more than two people) all of you] go (or went)

What did you buy at whatever place or places you went?

This sounds a bit unnatural though. We'd really ask something like "What did you buy at wherever you went?"

Why is “of” not correct for this sentence?

4. It’s up to Buzz, Mr Potato Head, Hamm, Rex and Slinky Dog to rescue their friend and
remind him (of) what being a toy is all about

Of is not needed. We might say "Remind Bob of his appointment." This means "Remind Bob about his appointment." Bob has fogotten he has an apointment at all.

Buzz and his friends are not reminding their friend that he has a toy, they are reminding him what toys do.

Sorry, this is a poor answer. Pogo or the Curmudgeon will be sure to give a better one.

I sort of have an understanding how to use verbs would, would have, have had, should have had, and the past tense, past participle. Would you please give examples on how to use these verbs.

What is the difference between the verbs in brackets in sentence 5 and 5a?

5. My mother [would slap] me on the face if I [would mention] something about her past.

Did this ever happen? Maybe you knew better than to mention such a thing, so it never did. But if you did mention it, she was sure to slap you.

Maybe it happened once and you never mentioned anything again because you knew what would happen if you did.

Maybe it happend a lot and you knew it was going to happen but you mentioned it anyway because you couldn't help yourself.

5a. My mother [slapped] me on the face if [mentioned] something about her past.

This definitely happened.

I would love if you (what pronoun do I use here if I do not address a specific person) gave me some tips for improving my writing.

"You" is correct. It can mean one person even if you don't know who that person will be, because you are addressing your unknown reader, or it can be plural, meaning "all of you" or "any of you." It works perfectly either way.

Last Edited on 4-Oct-2008 4:06 PM