"5 minutes remaining."

james   Sun Jul 09, 2006 3:50 am GMT
"5 minutes remaining."

i have seen this sentence on my computer. whenever i copy something, it appears. but i'm a little messy about the "remaining".

what grammar rule is used in this sentence ?
i can't understand it .

please help me.
Aquatar   Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:02 am GMT
It's short for 5 minutes ARE remaining. You could also say 5 minutes left, short for 5 minutes ARE left.
j   Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:31 pm GMT
Aquatar:
"5 minutes left is short for 5 minutes ARE left."

I don't think, you are precisely right. A usage without "are" is grammatically correct.
see:
"There's some food left over from the party".(Cambridge online)

Also: a few minutes left (often used);
Aquatar   Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:59 pm GMT
j

I'm not saying it isn't grammatically correct, it's obviously what is often said. Often in English you can omit the verb in that way.

I was just trying to make it clearer for a learner of English, so they can see where the verb would fit in.

'There's some food left over from the party' is basically saying 'There's some food, WHICH IS left over from the party', but of course we tend not to say it that way.
Jim   Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:07 am GMT
"There's some food left over from the party."
= "There is some food left over from the party."

There's nothing special here. The subject is "there" the main verb is "is". Compare it to "There is food."
j   Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:12 pm GMT
so, Jim, who is right and who is wrong, in your opinion?

Aquatar says, that:

1. '5 minutes left' - it's short for '5 minutes are left'.
2. 'There's some food left over from the party' is basically saying 'There's some food, WHICH IS left over from the party'.
So in both cases a verb is omitted

I say:
Nothing omitted here, it's basically different constractions.
5 minutes left - if someting omitted here, it's 'there are', not 'are':
There are 5 minutes left.

Compare:
'He touched the door open wide'.
According to Aquatar, it's a short way to say 'he touched the door which was opened wide'.
Aquatar   Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:18 pm GMT
j

I'm a bit confused about what you are saying with your example. Do you mean 'He pushed the door open wide'? In which case I don't think it is quite the same thing. The action of pushing the door has resulted in it becoming open wide. He pushed the door which was open wide, would indeed mean something different, that the door was already open.
Guest   Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:45 pm GMT
Aquatar: 'Do you mean 'He pushed the door open wide'? The action of pushing the door has resulted in it becoming open wide.

No. I mean only that 'He TOUCHED the door open wide' is similar to 'I have 5 minutes left' or 'There is food left on the table.' , or 'He had no time left. '
'Left' acts here as an adective, similar to how 'open' does.
Aquatar   Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:32 pm GMT
'No. I mean only that 'He TOUCHED the door open wide' is similar to 'I have 5 minutes left' or 'There is food left on the table.' , or 'He had no time left. '
'Left' acts here as an adective, similar to how 'open' does'.

Hmmm, I don't know. Are these the same? What do others think?
j   Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:44 pm GMT
the others keep silent...
Aquatar   Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:32 pm GMT
j

Well, hopefully someone will give their two penneth worth. The other thing is 'He touched the door wide open' doesn't make a great deal of sense to me in the first place, that is why I was checking what you meant. It does sound a bit strange, to me anyway. I can't imagine myself ever saying it.

Is English your native language?
Aquatar   Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:39 pm GMT
Anyway, I think I would be far more likely to say the wide open door - he touched the wide open door
j   Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:31 am GMT
1.If I say 'there is a door wide open '- wouldn't it be the same structure as 'There is some food left over?' or 'I have only 5 minutes left' or even '5 minutes left' (with 'there is' left out)?
What I'm trying to say here it's that the 'left' in examples above is not a verb with 'is' or 'are' omitted. It's a past participle which acts as adjectives here. Another examples I can think about - 'I found my money stolen' or 'I found my book lost'.

2.<Is English your native language?>
God, no! Can't you see this? :)
Johnathan Mark   Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:29 pm GMT
I would say it is short for "there are 5 minutes remaining." It is not gramatically correct, but it is completely unambiguous. There are plenty of other examples of ungramatical usage on computers--for example, the phrase on the button I am about to click--"Send Message"--should state "Send the Message."
Travis   Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:06 pm GMT
>>I would say it is short for "there are 5 minutes remaining." It is not gramatically correct, but it is completely unambiguous. There are plenty of other examples of ungramatical usage on computers--for example, the phrase on the button I am about to click--"Send Message"--should state "Send the Message."<<

I would not say that these are "incorrect" myself; rather, I would say that they are simply not complete sentences, but rather simply phrases which correspond to sentences with certain parts that can be ascertained by usage and context, such as the copula and the placeholder subject, removed.