song english
1. There being nobody else at hand, I had to do it by myself. 2. I had to do it by myself for there to be nobody else at hand. 3. I had to do it by myself with there being nobody else at hand. 4. I had to do it by myself with there to be nobody else at hand. Question: Which is/are grammatically correct?
Mar 28, 2023 10:55 AM
Answers · 9
1 is correct. You can optionally omit ‘by’. The wording ‘at hand’ is good but rather formal. More colloquially would be something like ‘Nobody else was around so I had to do it (by) myself.’ The ‘by’ suggests that it would be more normal for more than one person to do it at the same. Without the ‘by’ you are emphasizing that you are doing something and not someone else. Both are correct. I’m just clarifying the difference in meaning.
March 28, 2023
correct: #1. All others have mistakes: #2: I had to do it by myself for there SEEMED to be nobody else at hand. #3: I had to do it by myself, there being nobody else at hand. #4: I had to do it by myself with nobody else at hand.
March 28, 2023
#1 is definitely best. It is grammatically correct, and it sounds natural. #2 sounds like you chose to do it so you could be alone, but it is grammatically and syntactically correct. I'm not sure about #3 in technical terms, but it sounds strange. #4 is definitely incorrect.
March 28, 2023
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