Please correct English

Question

Could you correct grammar?With the husband living in New York and the wife in Beijing travelling is part of their story…so to stay in the theme we had a little promenade with few stops on key locations of their relationship (of course in London, where all’s started!).Thanks

Doctor D · Accepted Answer

This is how I would word it (changes in bold):

With the husband living in New York and the wife in Beijing, travelling is part of their story. So to stay in the theme, we had a little promenade with few stops at key locations of their relationship (beginning, of course, in London, where it all started!).

Note that I put in commas after the introductory phrases and broke this into two sentences to make it less cumbersome.

Anonymous · Answer

Happy New year to you DoctorD,

What does it mean to stay in the theme?
I have no clue, I read this on a site.
Would it be correct to start with 'Since' instead of 'With'?

May I ask you what you think of the sentences? 5 different topics. I would love to know your opinion
Is it incorrect to say '(Out) of all the teams that could have beat us, it was the worst team in the league that did'
or
'(Out) of all the teams that could have beat us, the worst team in the league that beat us'
Is this natural and what does it mean, did you want them to lose or not?
Of all the teams I bet on, they were the ones that had to lose. My luck

Don't we say 'Of all the people it could have been at my door, it had to be you'

Is this correct?
The 30 billion dollars he has when he dies will last all the generations ever not just the next 2 generations.
Can you tell me if the exchange between the 2 sisters is correct please?

Older sister : What did I get you to think that was under the bed as a kid? A monster?
Younger sister : Yes.That's why I don't leave my legs or arms hanging the bed. I'm scared there might be a monster under the bed to this day.

Is 'as pertains to correct?

Would you please read the following sentence from a military letter to a state senator and correct it as pertains to using the word remain or remains?
I read the above thread but how would you say the below sentence as pertains to the above page about X?

well or much
I can't see it as well/much from back here.

Rather in conditional?

If I could have gone back in time, I would [rather] have done it differently.

Which are correct?
There are different ways of judging success.
There are different standards of success.
Success can be judged by different standards.
There are different standards to judge success by.
The best success in life is having children.

Does this make sense?
There was a homeless on the metro and every time the doors opened, the air circulation made so the whole train could smell scent.

Which word?
proportional
in proportion
relative
The present you buy him has to be ____ to your salary.
You spend far too much time on that work ____ to its importance.
My elation is ____ to the gift. The nicer the gift the happier I am.

Which is correct? How to correct?

How often do the trains run?
How often are the trains?
How long do you have to wait between subways?
At what interval do the subways come?
What is the interval between trains?
The trains run at equal intervals. The trains run at shorter intervals. The trains run at regular intervals.

Is says a good word?

When your son is accused of murder, no matter what the crime scene says, you think he's innocent.

Could you please tell me what you think of this?

Happy New Year

Doctor D · Answer

What does it mean to stay in the theme?
I have no clue, I read this on a site.

Stay in the theme/stay with the theme--means to continue to use ideas or images already introduced.
For example: Jack is a dog, a bloodhound, while Mary is more like a sheepdog, always trying to steer the conversation. To keep with this theme, I would say that George resembles a lap dog, always looking for a soft place to sleep.

Would it be correct to start with 'Since' instead of 'With'? Not unless you rewrote the sentence:
Since the husband is/was living in New York and the wife is/was in Beijing, travelling is part of their story.

Okay, this should answer your question about the original topic . I will deal with your new questions in a separate reply.

Doctor D · Answer

You have a lot of questions here, but I will try to say something about all of them.

#1
Is it incorrect to say '(Out) of all the teams that could have beat us, it was the worst team in the league that did.' [Yes, you can say this]
or
'(Out) of all the teams that could have beat us, the worst team in the league that beat us'
[Grammar is wrong here. "...the worst team in the league was the one that beat us."]
Is this natural and what does it mean, did you want them to lose or not?
[No, you are expressing shock that it was the worst team that beat you, not one of the better ones.]
Of all the teams I bet on, they were the ones that had to lose. My luck

Don't we say 'Of all the people it could have been at my door, it had to be you'
Almost: We should say: "Of all the people who could have been at my door, it had to be you."

#2

Is this correct?
The 30 billion dollars he has when he dies will last all the generations ever not just the next 2 generations. [Not correct as it stands. It makes more sense this way:
The 30 billion dollars he had when he died will last all the generations (of his family) for ever, not just the next two generations.]

#3
Can you tell me if the exchange between the 2 sisters is correct please?

Older sister : What did I get you to think that was under the bed as a kid? A monster?
Younger sister : Yes.That's why I don't leave my legs or arms hanging the bed. I'm scared there might be a monster under the bed to this day.
[I would make a couple of small corrections. But I would also rearrange the sentences to make them clearer. As follows:
Older sister : As a kid, what did I get you to think ~~that~~ was under the bed? A monster?
Younger sister : Yes. That's why I still don't leave my legs or arms hanging off the bed. To this day, I'm scared there might be a monster under the bed.

#4
Is 'as pertains to correct?

Would you please read the following sentence from a military letter to a state senator and correct it as pertains to using the word remain or remains? [correct]
I read the above thread but how would you say the below sentence as pertains to the above page about X? Is 'as pertains to correct? [The wording of this sentence is awful. Is this the sentence you want comment about, or are you asking something on your own here?]

#5
well or much
I can't see it as well/much from back here.
[Either. "Well" focuses on your ability to see; "much" focuses on what there is to see.]

#6
Rather in conditional?
If I could have gone back in time, I would [rather] have done it differently.
[No "rather" in this sentence structure. Rather refers to preferences. You already show your preferences by saying you would have done it differently. So "rather" is not needed. If you want "rather," you need to reshape the sentence. For example: "I would rather it had turned out differently, but I can't go back in time."]

#7
Which are correct?
There are different ways of judging success.
There are different standards of success.
Success can be judged by different standards.
There are different standards to judge success by.
The best success in life is having children.
The first four are all correct grammatically. However, the last sentence is a different kind of statement, and is not how I would word it. Better would be something like "True success is having [wonderful/beautiful/truthful/happy] children."

#8
Does this make sense?
There was a homeless on the metro and every time the doors opened, the air circulation made so the whole train could smell scent.
[Needs work. For example: There was a homeless man on the metro, and every time the doors opened, the circulation of the air caused the whole train to smell his stink.]

#9
Which word?
proportional
in proportion
relative
The present you buy him has to be ____ to your salary. [in proportion]
You spend far too much time on that work ____ to its importance. [relative]
My elation is ____ to the gift. The nicer the gift, the happier I am. [proportional or proportionate]
[Those are my choices. I use "proportion" when I talking about a more mathematical relation. I use "relative" when I am comparing things in a general way.]

#10
Which is correct? How to correct?
How often do the trains run? [Correct]
How often are the trains? [Incorrect. How often do the trains arrive?]
How long do you have to wait between subways?
At what interval do the subways come? [Incorrect. Perhaps: At what interval have they scheduled the trains?--but still awkward.]
What is the interval between trains? [Correct]
The trains run at equal intervals. The trains run at shorter intervals. The trains run at regular intervals. [The last is good, but it would be better if they said what that interval was: The trains run at regular 15 minute intervals.]

#11

Is says a good word?
When your son is accused of murder, no matter what the crime scene says, you think he's innocent.
[Yes. You could also use "suggests." It is hard to think of a word that doesn't sound like the crime scene is a person.]

I think that covers all your questions. I hope this helps.

Anonymous · Answer

Doctor D'(Out) of all the teams that could have beat us, the worst team in the league that beat us'[Grammar is wrong here. "...the worst team in the league was the one that beat us."]Is this natural and what does it mean, did you want them to lose or not?[No, you are expressing shock that it was the worst team that beat you, not one of the better ones.]Of all the teams I bet on, they were the ones that had to lose. My luck

Could you tell me, you said starting with 'of' is correct is it correct to start with 'as'? I heard this: Does this mean anything?
As cold as his opponent has been, he's been just as hot.
As good as his opponent is, he is better

Thanks

Doctor D · Answer

Yes, you can start with "as" also. Both in comparisons and for other uses.
For example:
As you can see, I am always correct.

The second sentence is fine. The first sentence I would reword because it is awkwardly said.
He's as hot as his opponent is cold. (Meaning, at the top of his game or doing well vs doing badly).

Anonymous · Answer

Hi Doctor D,

Can you tell me about this?
I had asked about skip forward to you but I can't find the answer you provided.

Is interval correct here? Are the sentences correct?

Every time you/With a click on the fast forward button, it steps through the movie in 10-second intervals.

Can I use interval or increment here?

A single click of either arrow served to skip forward or backward 10 seconds.
A single click of either arrow served to skip forward or backward in 10 second intervals.
A single click of either arrow served to skip forward or backward 10 second increments.

What about skip ahead as opposed to forward?

Is this sentence correct starting with 'with'?

With a flick of the joystick, the movie jumps forward 10 seconds.

Thank you

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