I couldn't determine

Grammar usage guide and real-world examples

After a single viewing, I couldn't determine Mr. Malick's attitude toward religious faith.

Yet I couldn't determine where theoretical extremity ended and individual experience began.

I couldn't determine the ingredients of their chicken nuggets (no one can, apparently) so I did my own version, using actual coal nuggets flavoured with bergamot and hydrochloric acid and it works really well.

I couldn't determine if the writer of "Keep Your New Age Cyberjock, and Send Me a Handsome Handyman" (April 2) was motivated by lust or was indifferent to her lack of knowledge.

Another commenter, now living in New York, describes her Cageian revelation while living in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia: I vividly remember for the first few days there was a sound that was driving me insane because it wouldn't stop and I couldn't determine its source.

She alluded to using again; I couldn't determine if she meant she was or not.

At that moment, in my haze of vainglory, I could not determine a single personal deficit.

I could not determine how Henrick fitted into the Icke camp.

His eyes were alight with a strong emotion of some sort, but I could not determine which.

For reasons I could not determine, Steven -- who would not give his last name, perhaps because of fire codes -- had affixed a lighted candle to the top of his bald head, like one of the singing incendiaries in "Beauty and the Beast".

While this works in theory, and I was able to upload a zipped folder with multiple files, Fluxiom did not automatically unzip the folder and I could not determine a way to do it with the service.