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grammar

please help.
I found a sentence like this:

I take an english course at Stanford University.

Is it meaningful?

Re: grammar

Hi. Good question.

Firstly, "English" is an adjective which derives from the proper noun "England"; therefore, it should have a capital "E".

That said, I suspect it's the word "take" that is behind your question. Grammatically, the sentence is sound, but it's use would be quite rare. In your sentence, the verb "take" is in the simple present tense and describes an ongoing action. Your sentence could answer a question like "What do you do over the summer?"

It is grammatically similar to "I eat toast". This does not mean that you are eating toast, it means that you eat toast (habitually or routinely). It could answer the question "What do you do in the mornings?"

I hope that helps.


Re: Re: grammar

GM, I hope you don't mind me noticing in your explanation that "it's use" should read "its use".