What is wrong with this sentence?

English grammar and usage issues

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cucullin
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Joined: 14 Oct 2010, 20:37
Status: Trainee Teacher

What is wrong with this sentence?

Unread post by cucullin »

Hi All,

First time poster, long time studier of TEFL and CELTA (at present). I'm on week 3 of my CELTA and I just got assignment 2 back. They said there is something wrong with a few anal things. This sentence was marked wrong;

I live in a metropolitan.

Is this how it should or can be written:

I live in a metropolitan city.


Oh yes, one more thing. My tutor underlined the memorise them in this sentence so I presume there is something wrong with this in what i've said or how i've written it:

The best way for learners to learn the irregular verbs and their past forms is to memorise them and this activity will give them practice in this way.

There are no rules for irregular verbs so am I right in saying that practice and memorising is the only way to learn them yeah?

Any help very much appreciated!!
Si
josef
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Re: What is wrong with this sentence?

Unread post by josef »

cucullin wrote:I live in a metropolitan.
The word "metropolitan" is normally an adjective. (As a noun it means a special kind of bishop or a city inhabitant, and these uses are rare.)

Following the article "a" you need a noun, and the noun form of "metropolitan" is "metropolis". Thus:

- I live in a metropolis.

Your suggestion is grammatically correct though illogical (because cities are by definition metropolitan). You could, however, say something like:

- I live in a metropolitan area.

Hope this helps.
Juanes
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Joined: 24 Dec 2010, 03:29
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Re: What is wrong with this sentence?

Unread post by Juanes »

That's a very good answer. But don't we often say, "My city is very metropolitan. Like New York?"
SusanP
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Re: What is wrong with this sentence?

Unread post by SusanP »

Cosmopolitan is better than metropolitan here: My city is very cosmopolitan, like New York. It means composed of people from different countries and influenced by different cultures.
pritch
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Joined: 03 Sep 2011, 11:36
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Re: What is wrong with this sentence?

Unread post by pritch »

I agree with Susan P, cosmopolitan is a better word than metropolitan and I think Josef really explains how you could use metropolitan and be grammatically correct if you wanted to.

I can't really see why memorise is underlined, Obviously you could spell it with a 'z' - memorize
but both are accepted forms generally British English would use an S where as US English use the Z more often
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