Dear Mr. Yang,

Dear Tam,

No meaning, but it is fun for children to sing it like this.

YTL

Dear Mr. Yang,

Would you please tell me the exact meaning of the first "but" in the sentence "There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they did not count."?

From dictionary, "but" means "only or just" when it serves as an adverb. But I just can't grasp the meaning when I replace the word with them.

Many thanks!

Best Regards,

Sandra

Dear Sandra,

It means: It cannot be that there are no other dogs on so large a place, but these other dogs are not important.

YTL

Dear Mr. Yang

I would be grateful if you can tell me the difference between "The details shall refer to the sketch 123." and "The details should refer to the sketch 123." in replying the request from the Contractor in a construction project.

Thank you very much.

Jimmy

Dear Jimmy,

I think the first "shall" refers to future tense; the second word "should" means "ought to".

It could be there is something wrong with the grammar here, or there may be a word missing.

TYL

Dear Mr. Yang,

Thank you for making this wonderful program which enriches my English knowledge very much.

In 1965, one of the Beatles' song "Ticket to Ride" part of the lyrics are as follows, "……She's got the ticket to ride ……and she don't care."

I wonder if Lennon and McCartney were grammatically wrong when they wrote "She don't care" instead of "She doesn't care"? or is that because in the pop songs, the grammar itself is not a big deal at all.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.

PH

Dear PH,

In popular songs, rules of grammar often ignored. "She doesn't care" is the correct form.

TLY