On vs AGAINST and ARE vs HAVE

Question

Could you please help me with this?1 The braces on your teeth maintain pressure against/on your teeth so they go back into place, its normal that when taken off, you feel like they are loose/wobbly.2 On the show, you don't see all the characters and storylines equally (as much) you see some characters more than others. (how is this and is AS MUCH optional?)3 We've been lead to believe you're daughter's behind the killings./We are lead to believe that...Thank you

Doctor D · Accepted Answer

Here are my suggestions for making these sentences clearer.

1 The braces on your teeth maintain pressure against/on your teeth so they go back into place, its normal that when taken off, you feel like they are loose/wobbly.
The braces on your teeth maintain pressure against your teeth so that they go back into place. It's normal that when they are taken off, you feel like they are loose/wobbly.
(Either "against" or "on" is grammatically correct. I prefer "against" because you have alrealdy said "braces on." Don't run the sentences together. Use two separate sentences. Also, use "it's" which is the shortened form of "it is" and not "its" which is the possessive form of "it.")

2 On the show, you don't see all the characters and storylines equally (as much) you see some characters more than others. (how is this and is AS MUCH optional?)
On the show, you don't see all the characters and the storylines equally: you see some characters and storylines more than others.
(I made some changes to strengthen the parallel structure. If you start out talking about 1) characters and 2) storylines, you must continue to talk about both. Yes, you may drop the "as much.")

3 We've been lead to believe you're daughter's behind the killings./We are lead to believe that...
We've been led to believe (that) your daughter's behind the killings. (The second sentence also works although I prefer the first version.)

Jason.oconal · Answer

Why did you choose against instead of on? In the British National Corpus, on (first on the list) is twenty-five times more prevalent than against (fourteenth on the list).

Doctor D · Answer

I'm American, not British, so I have different preferences. "On" or "against" are equally correct, as far as the grammar goes.

On vs AGAINST and ARE vs HAVE

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions