Please check these sentences

Question

Hi. Are these correct? for no. 1, I think a PC room is where people pay money to use computers. Thank you in advance.

1. My parents don't want me to go to a PC room. (Should it be "My parents don't want me to go to PC rooms"?)
2. It's embarrassing saying to a someone else (How about "someone else" without the article "a"?) that I couldn't pay.
3. My parents don't want me to text-message my friends too much.
4. My parents want me to sleep early. (Should it be "My parents want me to go to sleep early"?)
5. My parents want me to read a book a day. (I think it is correct, but could it be "My parents want me to read a book every day"also?)

KrisBlueNZ · Accepted Answer

1. I would say "COMPUTER room". Internet cafés are similar, but serve coffee and/or food. I would say "My parents don't want (or LIKE) me to USE COMPUTER ROOMS" or "... don't want (or LIKE) me USING COMPUTER ROOMS".
2. "a someone" is wrong. SOMEONE is equivalent to SOME PERSON or A PERSON or ANY PERSON; the A is included, so you don't add one. SAYING TO SOMEONE ELSE THAT is better written as TELLING SOMEONE ELSE THAT.
3. I say TEXT (which can now be used as a verb) for TEXT-MESSAGE. Actually I personally spell it TXT but TEXT is much more common.
4. "My parents want me to GO TO sleep early" but better expressed as "My parents DON'T want me to STAY UP [[TOO] LATE]" (Square brackets mean OPTIONAL, like in computer documentation.).
5. "... read a book EVERY day" is better, but "... read a book a day" or "... read ONE book PER day" are OK too.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you, KrisBlueNZ. As for no. 1, is it incorrect to write "My parents don't want me to use a computer room"? Does it have to be "My parents don't want me to use computer rooms? I must say, when we want to make a general statement, the noun will be in plural like, "I like to eat hamburgers."

Also, would you say any of these are incorrect? Thank you in advance.

1. My parents tell me to be healthy and not get bad grades in school.
2. My parents tell me to be healthy and to not get bad grades in school.
3. My parents tell me to be healthy and don't get bad grades in school.
4. My parents tell me to be healthy and not to get bad grades in school.

KrisBlueNZ · Answer

Exactly. When you're making a general statement, you don't use A/AN, and you don't use THE. That's because there is no actual computer room that you're referring to; you're just referring to computer ROOMS in general, so there is no ARTICLE.
"My parents don't want me to use A computer ROOM" is not natural, although its meaning is pretty clear.
There is another factor involved here. All of the following sentences are natural:
1. "My parents don't want me to USE computer ROOMS".
2. "My parents don't want me to USE A HAIR BRUSH to keep my hair tidy (they want me to use A comb)".
3. "My parents don't want me to USE THE long division method for my math homework (they want me to use THE short division method)."
Sentences 2 and 3 DO use an article. As far as I can figure out, the difference lies is the extra words after the noun. It is difficult for me to understand and explain, but I will try if you really want to know.

Your four example sentences:
3 is wrong; you can't say "they tell me TO DON'T ...". You can only say "My parents SAID [to me] 'DON'T get bad grades'." or "My parents TELL (or TOLD) ME: 'DON'T get bad grades'."
1, 2 and 3 are all OK and they mean the same thing, but you could say that 1 is a a slightly lazy version. They are all justifiable, depending on how you group the words before and after the AND:
1. My parents tell me to be healthy and not get bad grades in school.
2. My parents tell me to be healthy and to not get bad grades in school.
4. My parents tell me to be healthy and not to get bad grades in school.
If you delete the first highlighted part and the AND, the remaining sentence makes sense.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you. In your last response was more than enough information for me to digest (go over) for some time. Thank you again for your help.

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. Please help. Would you say this is correct? I think what is missing between the words "but" and "not" in the following sentence is "is" and not "may be." Thank you in advance.

The use of this word may be pretentious but not wrong.

KrisBlueNZ · Answer

I agree. Putting BUT NOT together like that implies that "may be" is the omitted phrase that would go between BUT and NOT, and saying "... but MAY BE not wrong" isn't what is meant. Inserting IS between BUT and NOT would make it correct.

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