vreddy

any is not a noun, any more than the poor is. But it is a determiner, but with ellipted noun: any one; the poor men These questions are not addressed in ESL classes, for the teachers and the professors are bunk. Check for these tricks, and/or systematization, in Bailey's website.

well, "but" is also used as adverb in two senses: (a) intensive; (b) meaning "only" In this case, it is intensifier. There are others as well: pretty Think of: she is pretty ugly! Check orlapubs.com/AL Prof. Bailey is better than the other junk English professors.

The second is better: it makes the comprehension easy, for one can easily recognize the subject. Learning all possible inversions by rote doesn't help much.

We can talk about many things, without knowing whether there exist those things in the world. That is, there is a difference between an object and a concept of an object. When a definite article is used, it is of an object; when not, it is of concept.

try the meta-dictionary: http://www.onelook.com I prefer Cambridge online dictionary: dictionary.cambridge.org/results.asp

Probably remembering these words may help you in comprehending sentences in SC; passages in CR and in RC. However, some weird words that are in those kind of lists won't often appear in GMAT english. So, having good comprehension, which also depends on the understanding the mechanics of English, is necessary for scoring well in GMAT. In and of itself, this doesn't tell much about how much you gonna score in GMAT, for simple reason that many if not all people know the basic vocabulary that appear in GMAT.

"Even though" is often prefixed with factual concessive clauses: say, past. Even though they did it, ... Although he can do it, ...

well, *the* indicates there is a referent; whereas *a, or an*, or mere plural without *the* indicates a mere concept. Of course, the notion of concept itself is a muddy one: it contains extension, and intenSion. The extension of concept is determined by the intenSion of the same: for instance, the intenSion of the concept Water is all substances that has chemical structure H20. Extension is set of objects that exist in the world, and whose essential characteristics are those given in the intension. Sometimes, there exists a concept whose extension is empty set: we have a concept of phlogiston, but whose extension is empty set. Idem for devil. For Christians, the extension of devil is not empty; but for me, the extension of devil is empty. Here, *definite article* plays crucial role in saying what is intended.

In subordinate clauses, "would" and "could" can be used in the sense of present-posterior.

Just forget subjunctive nonsense, which does not help understand. There are three things in past: factual, neutral, counter-factual, examples of which respectively are as follows: (1) He was here. (2) If he was here yesterday, it woulda been nice. (3) If he had been here yesterday, it woulda been nice. Adding further, (4) If he was here today, It would be nice. (5) If he were here, it would be nice. What's the difference between (2) and (4), and these sunken grammar books dont explain? (2) is past-neutral, whereas (4) is present-counterfactual; and (4) and (5) are same because of "today" with "was" in (4)

If I was here today = If I were here There is nothing wrong with "was"; the only problem is whether the hypothesis is a present counterfactual or past-neutral. The dixis "today" screens off the option: past-neutral. Idem for "was to".

ENS, Echole normale superieure is a good one.

E it is

clincher: stay to collect vs. scheduled to collect

"plan on taking" is more realistic(possible) than "plan to take." In linguistic terms, the former is neutral, whereas the latter is irrealis.