0
Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

should + be + -ing

0Hi there,02br
00What's the difference between02br
00If you aren't intelligent enough, you shouldn't be participating in any contests.02br
00and02br
00If you aren't intelligent enough, you shouldn't participate in any contests.02br
02br
00Thank you in advance. 0-
  

Top answer

0If you aren't intelligent enough, you shouldn't be participating in any contests. 02br 02br 00If you aren't intelligent enough, you shouldn't participate in any contests. -- This could be advice about the future.

  • 0If you aren't intelligent enough, you shouldn't be participating in any contests.
  • 02br 02br 00If you aren't intelligent enough, you shouldn't participate in any contests.
  • -- This could be advice about the future.
  • 0-
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14 Answers
0
0If you aren't intelligent enough, you shouldn't be participating in any contests. -- This implies that the person is participating now.02br
02br
00If you aren't intelligent enough, you shouldn't participate in any contests. -- This could be advice about the future. The person may have never participated to date.0-
0
0What about a sentence like this:02br
02br
00If you aren't intelligent enough, you shouldn't be participating in the nearest contest.02br
00is it acceptable ? 0-
0
0I don't like "the nearest contest." Do you mean "the next contest"? 02br
02br
00It would be accpetable if the person has already stated his or her intention to participate.0-
0
0Hi there,02br
02br
00Whe I use wanna and when I use want?02br
02br
00Also for Can and May.02br
02br
00Thank you! 0-
0
0So what's the difference when we give advice ? 02br
00If you can't cook, you shouldn't be cooking at all. (let's say the person isn't cooking right now)02br
02br
00If you can't cook, you shouldn't cook at all. 0-
0
0Anon, usually it's a good idea to start a new thread for a new question.02br
02br
00"Wanna" is very informal and shows how people pronounce "want to." It should never be used in writing except as dialogue. I see it in chat, but it's too informal even for e-mail, in my opinion.02br
02br
00Can and May are huge topics. Did you have any particular questions?
0
0It seems that there are two of us here, my last question was:02br
00So what's the difference when we give advice ? 02br
00If you can't cook, you shouldn't be cooking at all. (let's say the person isn't cooking right now)02br
02br
00If you can't cook, you shouldn't cook at all. 0-
0
0Thank you very much for your reply.0-
0
0Even if the person is not actively at the stove, "cooking" goes on every day, every week, etc. It's an ongoing activity in our lives, even when we're not doing it at that moment. 02br
02br
00But they're both SO unnatural. 02br
02br
00If you can't cook, please don't even try to.0-
0
0That doesn't answer my question. Why unnatural ? I'm not saying that the person doesn't have an ability to cook, what I'm trying to say is that he or she does it clumsily or the food tastes horrible. Coming back to the question, can both examples be used interchangeably ? 0-

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