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I understand that with words that indicate portions e.g. a lot, a majority, some, all, etc, I need to look at the noun after 'of' to decide if the verb is singular or plural. If the noun after 'of' is singular, I should use a singular verb. If it is plural, I should use a plural verb. For example: All of the pie is gone. All of the pies are gone. But what about the following statement: Each of the children ____ (be) given a balloon on Children's Day. Should the answer be 'is' or 'are'? Does the same rule apply? Thanks. | Relevant: and The answers in the linked question don't quite help me. Specifically, what happens with this case: My three pens are green. Each of my three pens are green. Each of my three pens is green. Part of the confusion seems to stem from the inclusion of "three": My pens are green. Each of my pens are green. Each pen is green. There doesn't seem to be a way to rewrite the last example with "three": Each three pen is green. The more common application would be: All three pens are green. But in the event that I want to say, "Each of my three pens are green" which is correct? And, in the event that the correct sentence is "each of my three pens is green" why does prepending "each of" to the beginning of "my three pens are green" change the verb? | This question is also open on EL&U: Considering the amount of controversy it aroused, I believe it's past "Learners'" level. An edit was suggested to my sentence. There was were an orange, some grapes, two apples and a small pile of cherries on the plate. In my native language plurality of the verb always follows plurality of the first element on the list. There were an orange,... sounds awkward to me, no matter what follows up. My simple solution was reordering: There were some grapes, an orange, two apples and a small pile of cherries on the plate. But that's not the first time I faced this situation and I'd like to know what the rules of grammar say about that — was my editor overzealous or am I trying to copy rules of my language that don't apply in English? | eng_Latn | 16,800 |
Your room is clearer than mine AND your room is more clear than mine Comparatives like these are many used in the same fashion such as neater/ more neat-- cleaner/ more clean etc. Having been into English grammar, I find myself bemused to figure their differences, thereby left wondering if anybody could help me comprehend their contextual connotation, Thanks in advance | My mom and I are having a dispute on much more easy versus much easier. For example, consider the sentence: It's [much more easy]/[much easier] to do action X than action Y. I say that much easier is correct and that much more easy is grammatically incorrect, while she says that both are okay. I understand that both are acceptable colloquially, but which is grammatically correct here? If you could explain why, that would be even better! | Similar to pissing contest - but not in an aggressive manner. Just each guy attempting to out talk one another to show they are the leader / in charge. Sample sentence: Well, that meeting was more of a X than being productive with Greg trying to show he was in control. | eng_Latn | 16,801 |
If you played someone in a game of ping pong, and wanted to refer to the game later, you could refer to it as "our game". For instance: "It was after our game." But if I were talking to a different person about this, I might find myself inclined to refer to the other person and me specifically, such as: "It was after John and me's game" But that doesn't sound right and also doesn't quite make sense. I almost more want to say: "It was after John and my's game" But I don't think that's correct either. Despite this, I don't feel like expressing it like this should be completely impossible. Is there any way to convey something about a possession that belongs to two people in this way? | I want to talk to someone about the house that my wife and I own. Saying, for example, "My wife's and my house is awesome," sounds a bit funny to me. What's the best way to express this? Clarification I'm asking specifically about the grammar of multiple nouns in possessive form. I'm particularly curious if it's possible to do this with a first-person pronoun (me). I am capable of rephrasing this in other ways - my question is not how to express the idea, but about this particular grammatical construction, if it is even legal. | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,802 |
Ok, so I'm supposed to prepare a short presentation about a grammatical oddity in the English language that doesn't seem correct, and yet it is. The topics range from explaining the plural of fish/fishes to the usage of "none of them are/is brave". I've decided to touch upon the "don't you dare" phrase, but I'm looking for some clarification of why that structure is in usage, and why can't we say "do not you dare" or "don't she dare" (context-wise likely used as a proxy command/threat). Anyone care to enlighten me? | I don't understand, because if 'don't' is 'do not' then wouldn't the sentence without conjunctions be 'do not you dare' which I'm pretty sure isn't grammatically correct. Like, when we say the term it means something else, certainly not 'do not you dare' anyway. Any ideas on why? I am so glad English is my first language. | I don't understand, because if 'don't' is 'do not' then wouldn't the sentence without conjunctions be 'do not you dare' which I'm pretty sure isn't grammatically correct. Like, when we say the term it means something else, certainly not 'do not you dare' anyway. Any ideas on why? I am so glad English is my first language. | eng_Latn | 16,803 |
As in the title, I'm conflicted whether to use the former or the latter. Logically speaking, I'd rather choose "hearts" since we're talking about everyones', but some quotes found on the internet make me wonder. | In a situation where say a group (or at least a plurality) of men is being addressed — for example on a sign passed by many married men — which is correct? "Remind your wife." or "Remind your wives." | The entire site is blank right now. The header and footer are shown, but no questions. | eng_Latn | 16,804 |
"I touched their forehead[s] with my fingertip." I'm not certaint whether or not forehead in this example should be singular or plural. There's a group of people, so obviously, multiple foreheads are being touched. However each individual person only has one forehead. | After the therapy, eight children (43%) became able to crawl/move on their back. Or should I use "on their backs"? Singular because each child only has one back, or plural because we're dealing with eight backs? | That car is way better than any car any of us have/has ever driven. None of us know/knows which direction Ron's house is (in). I have two questions here. In both the cases, are we to use the singular verb, or the plural? In the end of the second sentence, is using the preposition where it's been used, necessary? Would it be okay if it had no prepositions in it? | eng_Latn | 16,805 |
a guy claims that in American English it's proper to use the singular form for conjugating the predicate of group terms such as company, band, team etc. In British English, he claims, it's more common to use the plural form for there. My question is threefold. Is it true that it's not the intended meaning that governs numerus? If so, how profoundly rooted is that difference in the dialects? If it is, how does one formulate the following in American English? -- The diversity level amongst the people you've hired must be low? -- No, our staff is/are actually quite different individuals. | Which one of these two statements is correct? Our staff do ... Our staff does ... And is staffs ever correct? | Which is correct? Everyone were convinced that he would go to the game. Everyone was convinced that he would go to the game. I think it's "was", because "everyone" is singular, but I just wanted to check. | eng_Latn | 16,806 |
I am developing a search control, where user types in and it returns search results. When I get no matching result what message would be correct in that case? a) 0 result b) 0 results | When using zero as a quantifier, is it correct to use the singular form on the object of the quantifier, or the plural form? It sounds confusing when I put it that way, but what I mean is: Which is correct? Your password expires in 0 days. Your password expires in 0 day. Essentially I suppose I'm asking, does "singular" mean "one" or "the opposite of more than one", as zero is not "plural" in the traditional "more than one" sense? I'm pretty sure "days" sounds correct, but I can't be sure. | A coin is tossed three times. The probability of zero heads is 1/8 and the probability of zero tails is 1/8. What is the probability that there is at least one head and at least one tail? So, if P(zero heads)= 1/8 , then that should be the same of p(all tails)? We would use the complement rule and Multiplication Rule? P(at least one head) = 1 - P(no heads) = 1 - 1/8= 7/8 P(at least one tail) = 1 - P(no tails) = 1 - 1/8= 7/8 would I multiply the two values? | eng_Latn | 16,807 |
Which of these two phrases would be correct in a sentence:- 'To better share' or 'to share better'? | Mark's generosity in this crisis seems to more than make up for his earlier stinginess. Should those sentences always be avoided, or are there cases where they are valid? | Sorry for the title, it is not very evident and intuitive but I really do not how to tell it better... Well, you know, several times, or better, many times, we use this form: If I want to say: "development of special weapons was the first point in Hitler's program..." I will say this (a better form): "special weapon development was..." OK... is it "special weapon development" or "special weapons development" (note the plural...) what's the grammar rule in order to understand how to use this very used form? | eng_Latn | 16,808 |
Consider the following: Not only does she keep cats but she also keeps dogs. I wonder why "does" is before the subject. Is it a rule, governing parallelism? And also, is the regular form acceptable too? I mean: Not only she does this but she also does that. Also, is there any other rule governing parallelism? | What are the rules of parallelism? I've been reading a lot about it since yesterday and all I encounter is "They must have the same grammatical form"? What does this exactly mean? I know how to make parallel sentences with gerunds. The things get trickier when it comes to using modifiers. For example: I love using the phone that you bought me and the computer. On the left side of the conjunction there is a noun phrase that consists of an article + noun + another modifier and on the right side there is an article + noun. They are both noun phrases but the first one has additional modifier. Is that still considered a parallel sentence? Another example: I like to swim and to feel good. Here on the right side of the conjunction there is an infinitive and on the left side there is an infinitive + complement? Is that parallel? | Some conditions require that a person lie in bed all the time until recovered. Is there a name for such conditions or people experiencing them at the moment? For example, I am currently <bed sick> and can't help you with your homework. I tried looking for bed sick but hit a dead end. | eng_Latn | 16,809 |
Say I have a gym instructor called Anne and it's her birthday. I want to convey that to someone who doesn't know who Anne is in one sentence. In speech, I would probably say, "it is Anne, my gym instructor's, birthday." But, in writing, that seems wrong; it puts the possessive "s" in the subclause only. So what is the correct way to write a sentence like this? "It is Anne's, my gym instructor's, birthday"? "It is Anne's, my gym instructor, birthday"? Something else? | I would like to say something like The boy, Adam's, favorite toy was a bike. What is the proper way to say this? | 1) a ten years old boy is sitting on the couch. 2) a ten year old boy is sitting on the couch. 3) a ten-years old boy is sitting on the couch. 4) a ten-year old boy is sitting on the couch. Which is correct? | eng_Latn | 16,810 |
Why "" not "two-elements Boolean algebra"? The number of elements (two) is plural, but the word "element" is singular. This looks like a discrepancy for me. | Why are year, pound and mile in the singular form in the phrases below? five-year-old children 20 pound note 10 mile run Is that because they're acting as adjectives, which are always invariable in English? Is it incorrect to say... five-years-old children? 20 pounds note? 10 miles run? | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,811 |
I would like to know the correct way to use "me" or "I" Please add George and me to the distribution list. Or is the correct way, Please add George and I to the distribution list. | In this case what is correct? Keep Tom and I updated. or Keep Tom and me updated. I understand that me is an object pronoun. And therefore I feel the second option is correct. Especially, because I would say "Keep him updated" and also "Keep me updated". Instead of "Keep he updated" or "Keep I updated". But something about saying "Keep him and me updated" feels wrong. However I am not sure, because several people have told me that in this case I is the correct option because it is being used in conjunction with a name (Tom) and not a pronoun. Is that correct? | From some comments in the answers for (now deleted, 10k only), there's confusion around the usage of I vs. me: While the sentence, "the other attendees are myself and Steve," is agreed to be incorrect, there's confusion about whether the correct form is "the other attendees are me and Steve" or "the other attendees are Steve and I." (I've always used the heuristic of removing the other people from the sentence, so I always thought "the other attendee is me" would be correct, instead of "the other attendee is I." Is this true, or am I using a flawed heuristic?) | eng_Latn | 16,812 |
Well a silly question to ask, shall we consider *shoes * as singular or plural? I would say that it is plural for it has a singular form shoe. But then why do we write Either my shoes or your coat is always on the floor ? | The following sentence refers to an apocalyptic story where money no longer has any value: A can of sardines, radio batteries, or a bicycle is/are more precious than money. Should I use is or are after the series? | The plural of "person" is "people". The plural of "people" is "peoples". Person-people-peoples is the only sequence like this that I know of, but I'm looking for another. (The equivalent question is, is there another plural noun which has become a singular countable collective noun?) EDIT For those of you that think that people is nothing but a collective noun (and not an irregular plural, like mice), I urge you to consider: Do you treat other collective nouns as plurals? One person, two people, but one star, two galaxy? Do you treat other plurals as collective nouns? You can certainly say "a galaxy of stars" but do you say "a mice of mouses"? For those of you that think the customary plural of person is persons, try it on the next three, uh, persons you see: "Finish this sentence: 'one person, two _ ?' " | eng_Latn | 16,813 |
Is "none" singular or plural? I understand it to mean no one which is obviously singular. But I have seen sentences like: None of them have seen it which equals: No one of them have seen it The subject is singular but we use the plural form "have" I haven't seen "has" used in this sentence. Which one is more correct? Are both correct? What about its grammar (should it be "has" or "have")? | That car is way better than any car any of us have/has ever driven. None of us know/knows which direction Ron's house is (in). I have two questions here. In both the cases, are we to use the singular verb, or the plural? In the end of the second sentence, is using the preposition where it's been used, necessary? Would it be okay if it had no prepositions in it? | In English, the number 0 is treated as plural. It is then: 0 seconds 1 second 1.2 seconds 2 seconds Shouldn't it be "nobody want to go there," instead of "nobody wants to go there"? I also saw in TOEFL that "any __" should be used with a singular. But I see it very common that it is a plural also. Why is that? (updated: example, "we don't have any apples any more" vs "If you get any apple, please let me know.") | eng_Latn | 16,814 |
What is wrong with this? I have quintupple checked it, but grammarly tells me that I have passive voice misuse. Can someone help? "The Japanese were warned that one of their cities, Hiroshima, which is also where their 2nd army was, would vanish." | Whenever I create a document in Microsoft Word, it complains about a lot of my sentences being in passive voice. But, when I read that sentence aloud, it sounds fine to me. I am not sure if it is just me and will a statement in passive voice sound strange to a native speaker? So, my question is, is it considered bad form to use passive voice generally? Or in some specific cases like written communications only? Edit: If it is ok to use passive voice, then why does MS-Word complain? | Should I use 'was' or 'were' in this example? I was always delighted when my brother or one of my sisters was/were asked to do them. | eng_Latn | 16,815 |
I've seen a question here about the origin of but no explanation of why they're plural. If coins were black- and white-sided I doubt we'd be asked to call 'blacks or whites' on a coin flip. Is there a known reason for this? Or some interesting speculation? (-: | Head or tail sound fine to my ESL ears. What's the reasoning behind the plural usage? I looked it up on etymonline but didn't find anything interesting. | One of the things that makes him great is he brings it every night. I'm pretty sure it should be that make him in the plural, because one of the things is referring to a lot of things and a lot of things should take a plural verb. But I always hear native speakers in America say it in the singular, so with an s. Another example: This is one of the responsibilities that comes with greatness and he understands that. Native speakers always use the verb in the singular (here, comes) even though [I believe] it is grammatically incorrect to use the singular form of the verb there. | eng_Latn | 16,816 |
Which of these sentences is correct? It is he I relate to most of all. Or, It is him I relate to most of all. I believe that in neither of the two sentences do the words "him" or "he" act as a relative pronoun, for the simple reason that they are not relative pronouns. Instead, both sentences have an implicit relative pronoun. The case of he/him should depend on other considerations, such as, the proper case after the linking verb, "is". It should be simply a matter of which is more correct, It is he Or, It is him My Latin education would have me pick the former. But my knowledge of colloquial English tells me that the phrase, "it was him", is commonly used. Thus, I do not know. I hope these words help explain my reasoning, without making my reader more confused. I would be interested to know what you grammar gurus think of my first two sentences. Which is correct? | Overheard on an elevator today, I didn't realize it was him. Corrected by the know-it-all, He. "I didn't realize it was he." The know-it-all then went on a rant about how everybody is a dolt for not knowing that. I swear I have never heard this before in my life. Is the know-it-all correct? If so, why is "I didn't realize it was he," grammatically correct? What rule makes "him" incorrect here? | Let us go is a correct construction in the English language and definitely not: Let we go However, the question is: since us is an object-case pronoun, what is the subject of this sentence? | eng_Latn | 16,817 |
I am writing a story and would like to know which one is correct: a) "...and it was impossible to know who was sheltering whom." b) "...and it was impossible to know who was sheltering who." I tried to apply the 'replace who by he/him' method, but I didn't figure out yet. I appreciate your help. | I know that who is used when asking about a subject (Who is at the door?) and whom is used when asking about an object (By whom was the door opened?). How do you determine which one to use when the object becomes the subject of another clause? For example, take the sentence: I gave the prize to ____ deserved it most. Would it be whomever because it's the object of "gave," or would it be whoever because it's the subject of "deserved"? Is their a hard-and-fast rule to rely on in situations like this? | This Community Wiki question is designed to be the "canonical question" for questions asking how to upgrade one's device to a new Android version. I want to get a newer version of the OS for my Android device. How can I do that? See also: | eng_Latn | 16,818 |
Could anyone tell which statement is correct : 1. India is playing 2. India are playing | I'd say Microsoft have a way of bending the rules and I know that McLaren have won the championship. While this sounds strange, I believe it is correct English (sorry, I'm not native). But when it's a small company, would you still use it this way? Is a company always plural, or are small companies singular? I.e., would you say Bakery Johnson makes fine bread or Bakery Johnson make fine bread? Is it My book seller, Woody's, have moved or is it has moved? | Is "I am sat" bad English? I believe it is incorrect and instead either the present continuous I am sitting or the predicate adjective I am seated should be used. I hear this quite often, however, and ultimately usage overrules formality. Does anybody know where this originated or how to describe it grammatically? | eng_Latn | 16,819 |
This post has two parts: (a) a question and (b) a proposal. (a) Often, particularly while writing technical papers or user's manuals, I have come across a situation where I need to say: A user of this software may not need to use it from his personal computer. He can use it from a phone or even from his tablet. I have seen many authors use female pronouns (i.e. “she” and “her”), but lately this trend seems to have ebbed somewhat. I, and (I suspect) many other authors, do not want to use passive voice to avoid this. Is there a gender-neutral way to describe the same situation? (b) If there is none, I would like to propose using “ze” (for “he” or “she”) and “zir” (for “his” or “her”, rhyming with “fir”) as gender-neutral pronouns. I want to know how you feel about these words. | I know that one can use "they" / "them" / "their" in place of "he" / "him" / "his" or "she" / "her" / "hers" when the subject's / direct object's gender is not known; for instance, just looking at the default user's about me section on Stack Exchange sites: Apparently, this user prefers to keep an air of mystery about them My question is what happens when someone wants to reference the subject using a pronoun instead. Should the verb be conjugated accordingly to the pronoun? E.g.: Apparently, they prefer to keep an air of mystery about them Or should the conjugation be retained? E.g.: Apparently, they prefers to keep an air of mystery about them The former looks unclear because it wouldn't allow the reader / listener to understand if the writer / speaker is talking about a single person or about a group of people, however the latter sounds very weird, at least just to the non-native speaker which I am. | It is a well known fact that Alex is more soft-spoken than (she/her). Why would "her" be wrong? Why must the sentence end with "she"? | eng_Latn | 16,820 |
A: Where would you have the perfect date? B: In a place without people. Just him and me. Is this written correctly? | I want to know the correct form: He and I will go there or He and me will go there. Which is correct? | I wonder which of the two is correct: I have a red and a blue car. I have a red and a blue cars. or Everyone has a left and a right arms. Everyone has a left and a right arm. My (non-native) inclination would be for option 1, as it sounds better. On the other hand, in the following examples, the plural sounds better to me. Everyone has left and right arms. I have old and new cars. (when I only have only one old car and one new car) The left and the right arms are... But are they correct? | eng_Latn | 16,821 |
Can someone help me understand what's happening here? I don't think I have seen this before, thank you so much! "The takeaway is clear: cats are a growing environmental concern because they are driving down some native bird populations." | How does the subject-verb agreement work when a singular noun describes a plural one? Of the following, which sentence is righter? The computers is a good choice. The computers are a good choice. Is there a rule about these types of formations? Please explain. | Conventional parenting wisdom tells us to drive the fear of talking to strangers into our kids. Is this at all harmful though? Is there any adverse impact to a child's social development by doing this? How can you balance safety against fear? | eng_Latn | 16,822 |
The idiom 'Cross your Ts and dot your Is' is often written with apostrophes as though they were in the possessive forms: Cross your T's and dot your I's It's ubiquitous online, even on dictionary websites. But I don't understand why the apostrophes and don't know the rule of grammar that permits it. Can someone please explain the correct rule that governs writing it to me? | When writing (a blog post, script, etc..) what is the proper way to indicate two or more instances of a single letter? For instance, in Monty Python's Bookshop Sketch: C: I wonder if you might have a copy of "Rarnaby Budge"? P: No, as I say, we're right out of Edmund Wells! C: No, not Edmund Wells - Charles Dikkens. P: (pause - eagerly) Charles Dickens?? C: Yes. P: (excitedly) You mean "Barnaby Rudge"! C: No, "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens. That's Dikkens with two Ks, the well-known Dutch author. P: (slight pause) No, well we don't have "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens with two Ks, the well-known Dutch author, and perhaps to save time I should add that we don't have "Karnaby Fudge" by Darles Chickens, or "Farmer of Sludge" by Marles Pickens, or even "Stickwick Stapers" by Farles Wickens with four M's and a silent Q!!!!! Why don't you try W. H. Smith's? C: Ah did, They sent me here. I had always believed that plural never uses an apostrophe before the 's' (it's only used for possession), but I have rarely seen in written material the format "four Ms". (On a side note, whoever wrote also used "two Ks".) On a side note, and perhaps this should be a separate question, if a Compact Disc is a CD, then two Compact Discs would be two CDs right? (I see "CD's" written everywhere) | Don't worry, I have written your name on the attendance sheet. Or Don't worry, I wrote your name on the attendance sheet. | eng_Latn | 16,823 |
I am currently reading Liddell Hart's "History of the Second World War", and I'm wondering why he sometimes uses her/she when talking about Japan. In my understanding of English, it should be its or their (if you want to refer to the Japanese people). For instance: From 1931 onward the Japanese were aggressively engaged in expanding their footholds on the Asiatic mainland at the expense of the Chinese, ... makes sense to me, but: It is remarkable that she deferred striking for more than four month, while trying to negotiate a lifting of the oil embargo or Until early in 1941 Japan's plan in case of war against the United States was to use her main fleet in the southern Pacific in conjunction with an attack on the Philippine Islands, ... does not. Can somebody explain why Japan is female, and are there more countries for which her should be used? | While talking about ships and countries, is it a good practice to use the feminine form? For example: "Her economy" - while referring to a country's economy "Her flag (or deck etc)" - while referring to a ship Is this practice common? Is it used today? | Why is this sentence correct? She suggested that he go to the cinema. I would definitely use goes instead of go. | eng_Latn | 16,824 |
I though it was British vs. American but watching Star Trek I've noticed the same character using two different pronunciations. Then I noticed other characters doing the same. Is there any rule for using one or another? I've searched online and found two definitions, one singular and another plural, both uncountable. How can something uncountable be plural? | My non-native English speaking friend just asked me: "Data is..." or "Data are..."? I said both but that's because I've been desensitized from reading/writing both (especially from writing code and adding quick comments). My question: Is it acceptable to utilize either for a university paper? Or is one safer than the other (when confronted with stickler professors)? Related questions: | I'm looking for a single word, for someone who... keeps seeing everything that is wrong with everybody else. never seems to see the good of other people, only the bad things. points at others, as if he forgets he has weaknesses himself. does not brag about himself, he just seems to be dissatisfied with everyone else. I prefer a word that is as unambiguous and clear-cut as possible. | eng_Latn | 16,825 |
When indicating participants (as in a picture), which is correct; "This is Fred and me." or "This is Fred and I." ? (And, I know my punctuation is incorrect here.) | A question was asked in one of my friend's interview. The question was to determine the right form from the below sentences. Q. Correct form of English: Samuel was with Susan and I Samuel was with Susan and me Samuel was with I and Susan Samuel was with me and Susan None of these Now I vaguely remember a rule of thumb from my school days. That is "2-3-1" i.e. where all the persons are acting in a sentence, second person comes first, then third person and it is followed by first person. So according to this theory, 1 seems to be correct to me. Is this theory correct? | From some comments in the answers for (now deleted, 10k only), there's confusion around the usage of I vs. me: While the sentence, "the other attendees are myself and Steve," is agreed to be incorrect, there's confusion about whether the correct form is "the other attendees are me and Steve" or "the other attendees are Steve and I." (I've always used the heuristic of removing the other people from the sentence, so I always thought "the other attendee is me" would be correct, instead of "the other attendee is I." Is this true, or am I using a flawed heuristic?) | eng_Latn | 16,826 |
Which one is more acceptable? 1. Each boy and each girl has done his duty. 2. Each boy and each girl has done his or her duty. 3. Each boy and each girl has done their duty. Edit: Here is what I think. I think (1) isn't acceptable because 'his' is in masculine gender, which doesn't fit the noun 'girl'. (3) isn't acceptable because the verb 'has' is singular but the pronoun 'their' is plural. (2) is ok but the expression "his or her" looks awkward. | When I start a sentence with words like "someone" or "somebody", I don't know how to choose the right pronoun at the end of the sentence. Examples: If anybody asks you about the money, tell (Him - Her - It - Them) that it is in my bank account. I felt that somebody was in the garden but I did not see (Him - Her - It - Them). Speaker 1: A friend of mine helped me a lot. Speaker 2: You should thank (Him - Her - It - Them). Congratulations on your new baby! What's (His - Her - Its - Their) name? Those are the cases or situations that I can think of. If you have any other different situations, please let me know. | While talking about ships and countries, is it a good practice to use the feminine form? For example: "Her economy" - while referring to a country's economy "Her flag (or deck etc)" - while referring to a ship Is this practice common? Is it used today? | eng_Latn | 16,827 |
In Kill Bill (I think that is what the movie is called)**Hanzo breaks a 28 year old oath and makes the best in sword he's ever made for someone he doesn't even know just because she wants to kill Bill. Why?* | During kill Bill, we learn that all the black mamba had to do to get Hanzo to build her a sword, was to mention Bill's name. When black mamba meets Bill at the end, she tells him that all she did was mention his name. Bill responds with, "that'll do it!" So what was it that Bill did to Hanzo to make him come out of retirement and make another weapon of death? | Without recasting and in lieu of unsightly suspensive hyphenation, could these work? The en dash (which means "to") is used between the figures, and the hyphens are used in the compound modifier. To me, the examples below are concise and clear. Do you agree that the examples below are 100% punctuated correctly--yes or no? 45–50-year-old men 10–20-mile radius $45–$55-million-per-year industry $100,000–$150,000-a-year savings 10–15-degree temperature difference $2–$5-per-day service fees 45–75-cent-a-week raises 55–65-mph speed zone 15–20-ounce steaks 20%–40%-a-year tax increases | eng_Latn | 16,828 |
Isn't this sentence: He stole the singer of that band's wife. a wrong attempt at saying: He stole the wife of that band's singer. Someone pointed this out: The <singer of the band>'s wife is the wife of the <singer of the band>. The wife of the <singer of the band> is the wife of the <band's singer>. Apostrophes aren't that hard. I guess my question is - can you place an 's targeting a previous, but not necessarily the last word in a sentence? Thanks. | Please don't throw this one out as a duplicate of I'm not asking about the plurality of the noun immediately following those two words - I'm interested in exactly why the example below is problematic (context: I have several children, one named John)... 1: One of my children's name is John. I can't see any obvious reason why singular name there is completely unacceptable, but it certainly doesn't sit well with me. It seems to turn on whether one of my children can be treated collectively as the "subject" of the Saxon genitive 's, but I don't see a problem with... 2: It's actually one of my children's, but you can sleep in this bed. I realise that in practice we'd normally pluralise names in the first example. But of course, this implies that one of attaches to my children's names, which isn't really the same construction. So - is there some kind of "rule, principle" debarring #1 above? Or is it just "one of those things"? (Apologies if my later switch from brothers to children invalidates any comments or answers.) | The entire site is blank right now. The header and footer are shown, but no questions. | eng_Latn | 16,829 |
Would you say "The different types of cars" or "The different types of car"? In reality my doubt is about types of event/events but can be more confusing to explain what I mean. I have many events of the different types. | When speaking precisely or technically, one would say that "Homo erectus and homo sapiens are two species of hominid" rather than "Homo erectus and homo sapiens are two species of hominids." The hominid here should be singular because we are speaking about instances of a single class ("class" being used here in its broader sense, not in the sense of taxonomic grouping). Now let's consider more common parallel constructions replacing the word species with other words. Tide and Wisk are two brands of detergent. Tide and Wisk are two brands of detergents. Cats and dogs are two types of pet you can buy at Pets-R-Us. Cats and dogs are two types of pets you can buy at Pets-R-Us. I feel that using the singular noun to specify the class is more grammatically correct, but sounds stilted in conversation. Almost everyone I hear making these constructions uses the plural form. What are your thoughts about singular vs. plural here? Edit Here's a more extreme example that may help clarify the issue. Consider the following sentence: It was my first attempt at calming an angry crowd, and I just stood there while people were hurling all kinds of insults at me. Here I think the singular insult sounds strange, if not downright wrong. Further Edit I just noticed in A Treasury for Word Lovers (Morton S. Freeman, 1983) a section entitled "Types of Errors." This is a book about (American) English usage by an English professor and editor, which purports to be a "practical guide for serious writers and readers." I wish I could say this discovery satisfies the question, but in fact I now feel somewhat farther from the truth, if there is any single "truth" in this matter. But at least I don't have to worry about being wrong when using the plural form of the class in these constructions. | Some conditions require that a person lie in bed all the time until recovered. Is there a name for such conditions or people experiencing them at the moment? For example, I am currently <bed sick> and can't help you with your homework. I tried looking for bed sick but hit a dead end. | eng_Latn | 16,830 |
Neither Nancy nor Loma remembered to bring _______ camera ] Her Their Them Neither In this questions option C "their" was given correct answer but I need an explanation to it as I read the rule that the pair "Neither + nor" agrees with the nearest subject. | Which one is correct? Neither my friend nor I feel my best in the morning. Neither my friend nor I feel her best in the morning. Neither my friend nor I feel our best in the morning. I already know that the verb agrees with the subject closer to the verb: Neither my friends nor my brother understands me. (correct) Neither my friends nor my brother understand me. (wrong) AND Neither my brother nor my friends understand me. (correct) Neither my brother nor my friends understands me. (wrong) | It is becoming more common for people to explicitly state the pronouns to be used in addressing themselves: he/him, she/her, or they/them. For example, a name tag for a conference might read: Cory Lopez Some Company She/Her Usage seems to have settled on the singular they and them as gender neutral pronouns. Alternatives that were once widespread in niche communities, such as sie/hir, seem to have died out. Whether or not one agrees with this language shift, the pairing between subject and object case is fixed. It's difficult to imagine someone who uses "he" as his subject case using anything but "him" as object case, and it's even harder to imagine that such a person would succeed in getting people to use a non-obvious collection of personal pronouns. (And you may see what I did -- flat out assumed that "he" and "his" automatically go together.) What are the roots of the practice of presenting subject and object case pronouns as opposed to just subject case, subject and possessive, or some other combination? (Note: I am not interested in a discussion of the gender politics and cultural shifts involved, just the mechanics of how the current representation was chosen.) | eng_Latn | 16,831 |
If you care, setter (plural: setters) and getter (plural: getters) are parts of a computer programms that get (or retrieve) and set (or store) values in memory. But why do you write that words, that are, anyway, rather artificial (do they have uses in other contexts?) with double t? You don't do it with other words such as producer, consumer. Even words that finish in consonant (reader) or in t (eater) are just added the r or er suffix. Please clarify this non important issue to me. | in -> inner out -> outer / (outter?) What is the history or set of rules behind why 'inner' doubles the 'n' but 'outer' doesn't double the 't'? | What’s the rule to decide whether you add -er or whether you add -or when creating an agent noun from a verb? Sometimes it’s -er: read > reader hate > hater hit > hitter But other times it’s -or: meditate > meditator collect > collector | eng_Latn | 16,832 |
Let see this sentence: a person needs to change his / her mind so that he /she can become good. or a person needs to change his mind so that he can become good is the second one incorrect? I've never seen anyone write like this a person needs to change her mind so that she can become good | Is this sentence grammatically correct? Anyone who loves the English language should have a copy of this book in their bookcase. or should it be: Anyone who loves the English language should have a copy of this book in his or her bookcase. | Is it correct to say "What was your name?"? The reason I am asking this is, generally the name of the person will not change. One should say "What is your name?" | eng_Latn | 16,833 |
When asked a question about Collective Nouns, I told them that it is all right to use a singular or plural verb after a Collective Noun, as in - The class was listening to the lecture with rapt attention. Here the class is taken as a whole. The class were working on their projects. Here the the individuals are taken into consideration rather than the class as a whole. Now the question is: Do we use singular or plural verbs with the names of countries, which are proper nouns, for the same reason? As in: Bhutan is said to be The Last Shangrila. Bhutan are working on promoting their GNH Philosophy. | I'd say Microsoft have a way of bending the rules and I know that McLaren have won the championship. While this sounds strange, I believe it is correct English (sorry, I'm not native). But when it's a small company, would you still use it this way? Is a company always plural, or are small companies singular? I.e., would you say Bakery Johnson makes fine bread or Bakery Johnson make fine bread? Is it My book seller, Woody's, have moved or is it has moved? | Does there exist a continuous bijection from $(0,1)$ to $[0,1]$? Of course the map should not be a proper map. | eng_Latn | 16,834 |
I tried reading online articles about this but I'm still not understanding when it is correct. The sentence: "Logic is not for people like you and me." Is this accurate and in which context could this change to "you and I"? If the word "logic" was replaced by an adjective would that change anything? | When the phrase is used as an object, why so many native speakers are saying "you and I" instead of "you and me"? I'm not a native speaker but I thought "you and me" is correct. Not sure if this falls into the same category, but "Just between you and me" sounds more natural than "Just between you and I". | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,835 |
If I have only one front door, and only one back door, and they are both red. Which is correct: The front and back door are red; The front and back doors are red. I feel that (1) looks wrong and that (2) indicates that there are a plurality of both front and back doors. | I wonder which of the two is correct: I have a red and a blue car. I have a red and a blue cars. or Everyone has a left and a right arms. Everyone has a left and a right arm. My (non-native) inclination would be for option 1, as it sounds better. On the other hand, in the following examples, the plural sounds better to me. Everyone has left and right arms. I have old and new cars. (when I only have only one old car and one new car) The left and the right arms are... But are they correct? | Can you grab the blue shirts and socks? Is the above sentence stating that both the shirts and the socks are blue? Or only the shirts? At this stage, I am leaning towards the earlier (only the shirts) — though writing "Can you grab the blue shirts and blue socks?" seems redundant. | eng_Latn | 16,836 |
Here's the full sentence: "These men, all of who were well-known, well-respected statesmen, were viewed by their peers and common people alike as great thinkers in their day. I just can't really see where it would fall into: subject? predicate? object? What would it be? | I can never figure out whether I should use who and whom. Most people use who for both colloquially, but some people say this is not correct. What’s the rule for using who and whom correctly? | The sentence Women driving cars is, of course, such a foreign sight to a society like Saudi Arabia The subject is not "women" (otherwise, the verb would have been 'are'); the subject, as I mean to use it, is the rarity of seeing women driving cars. The subject, in other words, is "women driving cars" as a thing. Does this give me licence to use 'is' here? Thank you. | eng_Latn | 16,837 |
I heard a person on television say the following... "Pittsburgh need to win this game." To me, this sounds incorrect. I think it should be "needs to." If however, the announcer had said... "The Steelers need to win this game." it sounds right to me. So, I have always gone by the following plural = need; singular = needs However, this again does not make sense for some words (e.g. I = need). Is there some hard and fast rule on when need should be used vs. needs? | I'd say Microsoft have a way of bending the rules and I know that McLaren have won the championship. While this sounds strange, I believe it is correct English (sorry, I'm not native). But when it's a small company, would you still use it this way? Is a company always plural, or are small companies singular? I.e., would you say Bakery Johnson makes fine bread or Bakery Johnson make fine bread? Is it My book seller, Woody's, have moved or is it has moved? | Recently I ran across the sentence: "Just why the law prescribed thirty-nine lashes instead of forty or forty-one and so on, must needs remain unanswered." How did a plural verb like "needs" wind up as an adverb? Is it alone in this phenomenon, or are there other examples that appear to be an odd misplacement of a second verb, but are actually adverbs as well? | eng_Latn | 16,838 |
I was writing an essay on The Cow. I started like this: The cow is a four-footed domestic animal. It has a big body... ....There are many different breeds of cows in the world. You would notice that I started with 'the cow' and then I changed to 'cows'. Is there anything wrong about this? Is it grammatically incorrect switching between them two? | When speaking precisely or technically, one would say that "Homo erectus and homo sapiens are two species of hominid" rather than "Homo erectus and homo sapiens are two species of hominids." The hominid here should be singular because we are speaking about instances of a single class ("class" being used here in its broader sense, not in the sense of taxonomic grouping). Now let's consider more common parallel constructions replacing the word species with other words. Tide and Wisk are two brands of detergent. Tide and Wisk are two brands of detergents. Cats and dogs are two types of pet you can buy at Pets-R-Us. Cats and dogs are two types of pets you can buy at Pets-R-Us. I feel that using the singular noun to specify the class is more grammatically correct, but sounds stilted in conversation. Almost everyone I hear making these constructions uses the plural form. What are your thoughts about singular vs. plural here? Edit Here's a more extreme example that may help clarify the issue. Consider the following sentence: It was my first attempt at calming an angry crowd, and I just stood there while people were hurling all kinds of insults at me. Here I think the singular insult sounds strange, if not downright wrong. Further Edit I just noticed in A Treasury for Word Lovers (Morton S. Freeman, 1983) a section entitled "Types of Errors." This is a book about (American) English usage by an English professor and editor, which purports to be a "practical guide for serious writers and readers." I wish I could say this discovery satisfies the question, but in fact I now feel somewhat farther from the truth, if there is any single "truth" in this matter. But at least I don't have to worry about being wrong when using the plural form of the class in these constructions. | The entire site is blank right now. The header and footer are shown, but no questions. | eng_Latn | 16,839 |
Jerry is one of those students who (miss / misses) the homework assignment as he leaves early. In the above sentence which is the correct choice of verb and what's the reason for the choice? If Jerry is the subject then it should be 'misses'. But I have seen a rule which says that when using pronouns like 'who' the verb depends on the noun that appears immediately before the verb. | One of the boys who always give/gives the correct answer is Samuel. As per rule, one of is followed by plural noun/pronoun and singular helping verb, so we should be using gives in the sentence. But the answer is give. | I am having trouble with the following sentence: "The complexity and diversity of the new platforms is worrying us." If "complexity" and "diversity" constitute two subjects, then the verb should presumably be "are"; however, the sentence feels more natural with "is". Is this correct? Is there a linguistic term for this occurrence? The following questions address the general topic of compound subjects, but not specific cases like this: And the following question seems to have somewhat inconclusive answers: So this question is not really a duplicate of these three. | eng_Latn | 16,840 |
I am having problem understanding what the following sentence means exactly: Bill's and my car had to be towed last night. I can't quite figure out why the possessive is used in Bill's and what it means. | I want to talk to someone about the house that my wife and I own. Saying, for example, "My wife's and my house is awesome," sounds a bit funny to me. What's the best way to express this? Clarification I'm asking specifically about the grammar of multiple nouns in possessive form. I'm particularly curious if it's possible to do this with a first-person pronoun (me). I am capable of rephrasing this in other ways - my question is not how to express the idea, but about this particular grammatical construction, if it is even legal. | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,841 |
I'm confused about two particular examples where "who" is used as a relative pronoun: Example-1: ...people who I have no idea who are. ...people who I have no idea who they are. Example-2: ...people who we have no idea what their intentions are. What is the correct phrasing for these two examples? Also, is it okay to drop "who"? I've seen instances of example-1 on various webpages; in fact, a quick google search for "who I have no idea who they are" gave 97,200 hits. So, is it acceptable in colloquial usage regardless of whether it is grammatically correct or not? Thanks. | "Give him a box that everyone knows what it contains." Is this correct English? It sounds wrong to me. | Some conditions require that a person lie in bed all the time until recovered. Is there a name for such conditions or people experiencing them at the moment? For example, I am currently <bed sick> and can't help you with your homework. I tried looking for bed sick but hit a dead end. | eng_Latn | 16,842 |
When writing a thank you note from a husband and wife, is it correct to write the note as... "Thank you for inviting Steve and me to your home for the birthday celebration." Or is it, "Thank you for inviting Steve and I"? This seems so simple but yet I get stumped every time :/ | From some comments in the answers for (now deleted, 10k only), there's confusion around the usage of I vs. me: While the sentence, "the other attendees are myself and Steve," is agreed to be incorrect, there's confusion about whether the correct form is "the other attendees are me and Steve" or "the other attendees are Steve and I." (I've always used the heuristic of removing the other people from the sentence, so I always thought "the other attendee is me" would be correct, instead of "the other attendee is I." Is this true, or am I using a flawed heuristic?) | From some comments in the answers for (now deleted, 10k only), there's confusion around the usage of I vs. me: While the sentence, "the other attendees are myself and Steve," is agreed to be incorrect, there's confusion about whether the correct form is "the other attendees are me and Steve" or "the other attendees are Steve and I." (I've always used the heuristic of removing the other people from the sentence, so I always thought "the other attendee is me" would be correct, instead of "the other attendee is I." Is this true, or am I using a flawed heuristic?) | eng_Latn | 16,843 |
The most precious thing for me was .... a) my brother-in-law guitar b) my brother’s-in-law guitar c) my brother-in-law’s guitar d) my brother’-in-law guitar e) my brother’s-in-law’s guitar | I need a bit of help with this. She is a photographer but that camera is her brother's-in-law or: She is a photographer but that camera is her brother-in-law's I am aware that I could change the construction to make things easier, like: She is a photographer but that camera belongs to her brother-in-law However, I would really like to find out what's the correct way to write the sentence. | I was surfing the internet the other day when I found this phrase: Instead your precious time and attention is wasted. To my ears, it sounds wrong. But I'm not a native English speaker, so I consulted with a number of them, and some of them said that it was "is" because the adjective modifies only the noun "time" and not "attention". Others said it "is" because that's just how it is. But I still believe it should be "are". Any help is appreciated. | eng_Latn | 16,844 |
I have a specific sentence in which I feel inclined to use "your's" but in not sure if it's correct. Then sentence is: "Every story has a beginning - This is your's." What "your's" stand for here is simply "this is your story's beginning" but to spell it out like that doesn't create the same feeling. Albeit, is this a correct usage of "your's"? Edit: This is not a duplicate of "Yours vs your's" as I'm asking for a situation in which "yours" can't be used since it would mean their beginning, not their stories' beginning. | Which is correct “Is that yours?” or “Is that your’s?”? I ask because it is possessive, so I would think it would be the latter, but I typically use and see the former usage. Are there particular cases in which one should be used instead of the other? Or is one simply correct and the other not? This is one of the few things that still confuse me, so help is greatly appreciated. | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,845 |
"let's make a robot ___ creates a copy of itself" What would be the right word to use here? That or which? | When is it appropriate to use that as opposed to which with relative clauses? | I came across this : Unbelievable as it may seem, many individuals that fought in the American Revolution were still alive in 1839, the year the world was introduced to photography. (choose the error - the 'answer' is in bold) It noted that the reason "that fought" is wrong is that 'The relative pronoun “that” may not be used to refer to people (“individuals”) and should be replaced with the relative pronoun “who.”' I had thought that the word "that" could refer to both people and objects (while which was reserved for objects and who reserved for people). Am I wrong? | eng_Latn | 16,846 |
Which is correct? Dear Jay, I was contacted by Sue on behalf of herself, John, and you. or Dear Jay, I was contacted by Sue on behalf of herself, John, and yourself. | If you are talking on behalf of you and someone else what is the correct usage? On behalf of my wife and me On behalf of my wife and I On behalf of me and my wife On behalf of myself and my wife On behalf of my wife and myself ... My understanding is that after that phrase you would carry on talking in first person. | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,847 |
Today I heard a sentence: Do you want more potatoes peeled. But I have always used it as: Do you want having more potatoes peeled. Which one is grammartical? Please explain with examples. Thanks in advance. | Are the following two sentences correct? I want you to go to sleep. and I want you going to sleep. If they are both correct, what's the difference? | That car is way better than any car any of us have/has ever driven. None of us know/knows which direction Ron's house is (in). I have two questions here. In both the cases, are we to use the singular verb, or the plural? In the end of the second sentence, is using the preposition where it's been used, necessary? Would it be okay if it had no prepositions in it? | eng_Latn | 16,848 |
Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister are two authors of Peopleware. When talking or writing about the book, do I have to write: Have you read Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister's Peopleware? or: Have you read Tom DeMarco's and Timothy Lister's Peopleware? | Which option is grammatical? There will be readings from Nikki Giovanni’s and Alice Walker’s writings. There will be readings from Nikki Giovanni and Alice Walker's writings. Saying it out loud the latter sounds right, but looking at it the former looks better. | The entire site is blank right now. The header and footer are shown, but no questions. | eng_Latn | 16,849 |
I would like to know whether this is correct: He uses a car instead of a bus. What does he use a car instead of? | Like many others, I commonly find myself ending a sentence with a preposition. Yes, it makes me cringe. I usually rewrite the sentence, but sometimes (in emails) I just live with it. To, with... you know who you are. Should I keep fighting myself on this one, or is it okay in some circumstances? | Should I use 'was' or 'were' in this example? I was always delighted when my brother or one of my sisters was/were asked to do them. | eng_Latn | 16,850 |
Consider these There is an apple, an orange and a banana on the table. There are an apple, an orange and a banana on the table. which one should I use? | This question is also open on EL&U: Considering the amount of controversy it aroused, I believe it's past "Learners'" level. An edit was suggested to my sentence. There was were an orange, some grapes, two apples and a small pile of cherries on the plate. In my native language plurality of the verb always follows plurality of the first element on the list. There were an orange,... sounds awkward to me, no matter what follows up. My simple solution was reordering: There were some grapes, an orange, two apples and a small pile of cherries on the plate. But that's not the first time I faced this situation and I'd like to know what the rules of grammar say about that — was my editor overzealous or am I trying to copy rules of my language that don't apply in English? | Some conditions require that a person lie in bed all the time until recovered. Is there a name for such conditions or people experiencing them at the moment? For example, I am currently <bed sick> and can't help you with your homework. I tried looking for bed sick but hit a dead end. | eng_Latn | 16,851 |
So I was asked to rewrite the following sentence with the correct tense of the verb given in bracket: It is I who (be) to do it. Initially I believed, the following would be correct: It is I who has to do it. But after researching for a while I think I am wrong and the has verb needs to be replaced with am. Any suggestions? | Possible Duplicate: Which one of these is correct? It is I who am at fault. It is me who is at fault. The word "is" is a conjugation of "be" which is a linking verb. I also want to know the same for 2nd person. It is you who are at fault. It is you who is at fault. | Is the following sentence correct English? Have you the address? The address in question is obvious to the person being asked. It's normal to ask such a question as "Do you have the address?" or even "Have you got the address?" But is it acceptable to use just the verb have without do or got? | eng_Latn | 16,852 |
Which of the following choices makes this sentence is grammatically correct? or is there a better approach? It's unclear whether he/him or I/me is/are first in line. | I was watching the film A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law when this line came up, "...neither you nor I is in control..." (I can’t remember the exact words that ended the phrase; if anyone can supply them, it would be much appreciated.) It immediately struck me as being odd. When I mentioned this to my boyfriend; an English native speaker, with a PhD in something sciency, he told me it was correct. When I asked why, he couldn't explain but put forward the following sentence as an example. "Neither of us is in control..." However, I disagreed with the wording and said the sentence should have been: "Neither one of us is in control..." The genderless third person, one, is singular, and hence, so too the verb that follows. And we say, "one is" NOT "one are". "Neither you nor I are in control over ..." I believe the above sounds better, but it is more logical to say: "Neither you nor I am in control..." because the verb agrees with the subject closest to it; however, I'm not sure if I have ever read or heard this solution. So, I tried inverting the subject and auxiliary verb order and the resulting phrase was: "Neither you nor am I in control..." which sounds very formal, pompous, and ... odd. Am I imagining things? The two subjects you and I are two separate individuals who are not joined together, I agree the verb should be in the singular; but why should we use "is"? We don't say, "you is" or "I is". Before anyone rushes off to claim my question is a duplicate of a previous Stackexchange one: I want to explain why the answer to that question fails to explain why my boyfriend and the film makers consider the sentence below correct: Neither you nor I is in control... As I see it, Michael and Albert are two separate individuals, it therefore stands to reason that the verb should be singular, and "is" agrees with the subject. If I rephrase the neither and nor construction, I would get: Michael is not correct but neither is Albert OR Michael is not correct and Albert isn't either. Which have the same meaning, (either being the negative equivalent of neither) the sentences are grammatical which leads me to conclude that the verb must be singular and hence Neither Michael nor Albert is correct However, when I rephrase the "neither you nor I" sentence following the same procedure I have to say this: You are not in control but neither am I (‘I am’ is ungrammatical) OR You are not in control and I’m not either. which leads me to surmise that the sentence below must be grammatically correct Neither you nor I am in control" So, why does my boyfriend insist that the sentence ought to be: Neither you nor I is in control Which one of us is right and why? | The entire site is blank right now. The header and footer are shown, but no questions. | eng_Latn | 16,853 |
Why do we say Pauli exclusion principle instead of Pauli's exclusion principle When we want to say that something belongs to somebody, we should use the "s" to form a genitive, i.e. "this is Pauli's cat", not "this is Pauli cat". | Consider these two ways of coining a name: 1) Bolzano's theorem, Rolle's theorem 2) the Poincare conjecture, the Kantorovich theorem. What is the difference between these ways, why do people choose one over the other? My guess is that the main difference is when you put 's at the end of a name, you strictly imply that the theorem/conjecture was written by this very person (Bolzano wrote Bolzano's theorem). But when it is "the [Name] theorem/conjecture," it doesn't mean that the person which name is used actually created this thing, maybe he just inspired it (Poincare might have only inspired the Poincare conjecture but did not propose it). Sometimes there is only one way: ; you can not call it hairy ball's theorem. | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,854 |
I'm using a grammar checking service. It tells me these kind of projects is wrong and should be changed to these kinds of projects. I'm not sure about the correctness of this suggestion, so I googled it on the Google Books website. You can take a look at the result and . Both searches returned many results, and these are from books, which I assumed to be correct. Could anyone help to explain? Thanks in advance. | A. These kinds of problem are to be avoided. B. These kind of problems are to be avoided. Are both A and B grammatical? If not, why not? If so, after having noticed the parallelism between A and C, and between B and D, could we say that C and D are "standard" English, too? C. These kinds of problem are ones to avoid. D. These kind of problems are ones to avoid. | Is it correct to say "What was your name?"? The reason I am asking this is, generally the name of the person will not change. One should say "What is your name?" | eng_Latn | 16,855 |
A while ago I heard a preacher say during a speech the following personal anecdote: When I arrived at the Atlanta airport, I saw a man with my name written on a card approach me and say 'are you reverend G…?' And I said 'He is I'… He is I? Is that correct? I guess if we apply the rule “when the pronoun is the subject of a verb” it might be technically correct, but even Shakespeare wrote “Oh, woe is me.…” not “woe is I.” I wonder if the preacher knocked at doors saying “it is I.” | Upon answering the telephone, the person calling asks if Joan is available. If Joan is the person who answered the phone, should she say "This is her" or "This is she"? | Let us go is a correct construction in the English language and definitely not: Let we go However, the question is: since us is an object-case pronoun, what is the subject of this sentence? | eng_Latn | 16,856 |
Is there a good reference for UI terms in spanish? Terms like username, password, login/logout, etc... aren't direct translations. I'm looking for a guideline to translate these labels. Update I've started a running list of common UI terms with spanish translations. Contribute: View: | I expect to be working on a web application within the next several months and I'd like to "shoehorn" a Spanish language version of the site. If a large enough number of Spanish language users begin using the site we'll likely hire a professional translator (or at least recruit someone who actually knows the language), but in the meantime is there a good cheat sheet I can use for common UX keywords, like "OK", "Submit", "Cancel", "Delete" and "Save"? I know I could use an online translator, but I'm concerned the translator would not pick up on context (thus giving me a Spanish word meaning something closer to "Take" for "Accept" or "Surrender" for "Submit", etc.) I'm not looking for a 100% solution, just something to give me the bulk of the keywords until there's enough reason to hire a real translator. This site will be in a beta development phase for a long time, I think, so we're not expecting a huge user base to start things off. | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,857 |
I found this sentence on a book. As I feel the part, 'having me for a brother' describes the pronoun, 'it', not 'she'. Shouldn't the sentence start with 'she'? | I am very confused. Unless I am mistaken, I know "it" has to be a noun of some sort, but I am unable to figure out what noun "it" is referring to. What is "it" in the following sentence: It is clear that Bob likes doughnuts. Heres another couple of examples: It is impossible to fly. | I have seen this construction quite often: Online ads have been around since the dawn of the Web, but only in recent years have they become the rapturous life dream of Silicon Valley. What is the rule there?. When your sentence doesn't start with pronoun + verb, invert them as verb + pronoun?. I know it sounds awkward but is it possible (grammatically correct) to use something similar to: Online ads have been around since the dawn of the Web, but only in recent years they have become... And in any case, does this only work with have (or has)? Maybe it works fine with 'had' but I can't think of an example right now. | eng_Latn | 16,858 |
Is it correct to say "The list of reports a user will see may depend on the permissions group(s) they are in."? I have asked the writer to change the text to say "users" to match "they", but he is resisting. | Is this sentence grammatically correct? Anyone who loves the English language should have a copy of this book in their bookcase. or should it be: Anyone who loves the English language should have a copy of this book in his or her bookcase. | Is it correct to say "What was your name?"? The reason I am asking this is, generally the name of the person will not change. One should say "What is your name?" | eng_Latn | 16,859 |
I have no difficulty in normal cases knowing whether to say "you and I"or "You and me." But this situation confuses me. On one hand, I can justify I by saying there is an implied "are" at the end: He is no different than you and I are On the other hand, this is a comparative, and if I were to change the sentence up just a bit, it feels like it would be correct to say "me": He is the same as me | In high school we learned to say "than I" and "as I" because you could potentially add an "am" to the end of the sentence. Examples: "She is smarter than I." (Think: "...than I am.") "He is as tall as I." (Think "...as I am.") So analogously, shouldn't it be "like I" as well: "He is sincere, just like I." (Think: "... like I am.") But universally, it seems that we use "like me". Where does this reasoning break down? Is there history here? | When the phrase is used as an object, why so many native speakers are saying "you and I" instead of "you and me"? I'm not a native speaker but I thought "you and me" is correct. Not sure if this falls into the same category, but "Just between you and me" sounds more natural than "Just between you and I". | eng_Latn | 16,860 |
We thank everyone who have donated, helped set up, etc. Is "have" correct or "has"? | Which is correct? Everyone were convinced that he would go to the game. Everyone was convinced that he would go to the game. I think it's "was", because "everyone" is singular, but I just wanted to check. | I feel uncomfortable saying sentences like the following: "I've a car" instead of "I have a car" "They've a great time" instead of "They have a great time" "He's a pen" instead of "He has a pen" etc I ask this because I read this sort of thing in a book. Are they correct? And what is the rule? Can you use such forms in a formal setting? | eng_Latn | 16,861 |
Alex likes neither candy nor cake. Alex don’t like candy and cake. What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences? | When I have these facts, French coins were not found in the ruin. German coins were not found in the ruin. which of these sentences are grammatically correct? 1. No French and German coins were found in the ruin. 2. No French or German coins were found in the ruin. 3. No french nor German coins were found in the ruin. I think 1 is correct but I'm not sure. By the way, I can also say Neither German nor French coins were found in the ruin. Also, when you have an additional fact Italian coins were not found in the ruin which of these statements are grammatically correct? 1. No French, German and Italian coins were found in the ruin. 2. No French, German or Italian coins were found in the ruin. 3. None of French, German and Italian coins were found in the ruin. 4. None of French, German or Italian coins were found in the ruin. Thanks, | Occasionally I see constructs like this in English sentences: Not only is this true in this case, but ... What puzzles me is the "is this" part of it. The sentence is not a question, yet it seems to have a question-like order. Isn't this correct/preferred: Not only this is true in this case, but ... Are there other cases where non-question sentences contain question-like parts (so to speak)? | eng_Latn | 16,862 |
I saw this sentence in the book 1Q84: It's not just you that don't know. However, I am having trouble figuring out why (or whether) this is the correct way to write the sentence, as opposed to: It's not just you that doesn't know. Now, according to , we should use "doesn't" when the subject is singular (except when the subject is "you" or "I"), and "don't" otherwise. But in the example above, I am having a hard time figuring out what exactly the subject is and whether it is singular. The reason my question is different from is that in John's, the subject is clearly "you." However, as I tried to articulate above, I am having a hard time figuring out what exactly the subject is in the quotes I gave and whether it is singular. | Possible Duplicate: This is a line spoken by the . I always wondered if this is grammatically correct. Luke says something like "You are mistaken ..." which the Emperor answers with No, it is you who are mistaken! Why wouldn't he say No, it is you who is mistaken! instead? I don't know what rules apply here but my stomach tells me the latter is (at least also) correct, although you would say "you are mistaken". It feels as if he should be referring to "you" in the third person. Could you please shed some light? Are both correct or – if not – which one is correct? And why? | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,863 |
I've recently caught myself spending too much time wondering about several off-sounding compounds I've come across, e.g. browsers list (as in, a list of browsers) and tasks queue (as in, a queue of tasks). I can't help it, but pluralizing the first word sounds weird to me. I would have said, "browser list" and "task queue". Which grammatical number is proper grammar? ( is quite similar, but isn't answered with regards to this specific detail.) | Possible Duplicates: I'm wondering whether or not I should use a plural form noun with a collection name. For example, which one is correct, bookList or booksList (obviously they are variables in a programming language)? | I would like to say something like The boy, Adam's, favorite toy was a bike. What is the proper way to say this? | eng_Latn | 16,864 |
Hi assuming you have a name like Cross, Tess or Ross. What is the correct way of writing including the apostrophe assuming the owner is a singular entity? Eg. Ross's apples Ross'es apples | Many questions already ask about this topic ( , , etc.) and their answers vary, but they always give exceptions to the apostrophe-s rule, for example: 6.24 The general rule for the possessive of nouns covers most proper nouns, including most names ending in sibilants." Examples they give include Kansas’s, Ross’s land, and Jones’s reputation. Exceptions include Jesus’ and Moses’. Which names does this apply to? Is the Aeneas’ form correct, or is it Aeneas’s instead? | For abbreviations - both acronyms and initialisms - where the last word in the abbreviation is the noun, I'm accustomed to adding an 's' with no apostrophe (e.g. ATMs), as described in the answer to this question: But how do you pluralize abbreviations where the noun is not the last word? E.g. 'Point of Presence' (POP) I can see how 'POPs' could read 'Point of Presences', when the intention is 'Points of Presence.' | eng_Latn | 16,865 |
The handsome young teacher fell into easy banter with his students, who were not much younger than he/him. Should this use "he" or "him"? | It is a well known fact that Alex is more soft-spoken than (she/her). Why would "her" be wrong? Why must the sentence end with "she"? | ...on Finnis's view all distinct instances of basic goods are incommensurable — none is of more, less, or equal value with any other. — I expect to see more or less than any other, but then equal shows up, and is followed by with. But since with any other cannot replace than any other, do you think this sentence illegitimately omits something? | eng_Latn | 16,866 |
One of the things that makes him great is he brings it every night. I'm pretty sure it should be that make him in the plural, because one of the things is referring to a lot of things and a lot of things should take a plural verb. But I always hear native speakers in America say it in the singular, so with an s. Another example: This is one of the responsibilities that comes with greatness and he understands that. Native speakers always use the verb in the singular (here, comes) even though [I believe] it is grammatically incorrect to use the singular form of the verb there. | If I am talking to somebody about a certain group of people in the third person, and then want to refer to the person I am talking with as one of those people, which do I say? One of them were you One of them was you. | One of the things that makes him great is he brings it every night. I'm pretty sure it should be that make him in the plural, because one of the things is referring to a lot of things and a lot of things should take a plural verb. But I always hear native speakers in America say it in the singular, so with an s. Another example: This is one of the responsibilities that comes with greatness and he understands that. Native speakers always use the verb in the singular (here, comes) even though [I believe] it is grammatically incorrect to use the singular form of the verb there. | eng_Latn | 16,867 |
I'm unsure when a subject is considered plural, and when not. Especially here: Williams aim to win at the next race. Here, Williams is a team, and I have always through this is considered plural, but I'm seeing different uses all over the place. What's the rule there? | I'd say Microsoft have a way of bending the rules and I know that McLaren have won the championship. While this sounds strange, I believe it is correct English (sorry, I'm not native). But when it's a small company, would you still use it this way? Is a company always plural, or are small companies singular? I.e., would you say Bakery Johnson makes fine bread or Bakery Johnson make fine bread? Is it My book seller, Woody's, have moved or is it has moved? | The sentence Women driving cars is, of course, such a foreign sight to a society like Saudi Arabia The subject is not "women" (otherwise, the verb would have been 'are'); the subject, as I mean to use it, is the rarity of seeing women driving cars. The subject, in other words, is "women driving cars" as a thing. Does this give me licence to use 'is' here? Thank you. | eng_Latn | 16,868 |
Does the apparently ungrammatical "States Parties" in international agreements come from French grammar where "States" would be the noun and "Parties" the adjective agreeing with its plural noun? | When discussing a treaty or international agreement, which is correct? "There are 100 states party to the treaty." (for example, as used ) Or: "There are 100 state parties to the treaty." (for example, as used ) Or: "There are 100 states parties to the treaty." (for example, as used ) | I never hear "scissor" or "pant" or "jean". It's always "scissors", "pants", and "jeans", respectively. Are they considered plural? | eng_Latn | 16,869 |
For instance, "A politician must be able to think quickly on the spot. He or she must also have no qualms about lying." I know some people who use "they", but as that both sounds and is ungrammatical, I'm wondering if there is any other concise and non-awkward alternative. Edit: Apparently many do consider "they" as correct. This surprised me, because I know someone who actually wrote a grammar book, who told me in no uncertain terms that "they" could not be used (in fact, I'd asked them - ha! - this question before I posted it here). And a quick look online found legitimate sources advocating both positions. I suppose it's one of those issues, such as whether the previous sentence was incorrect for beginning with a conjunction, where it really just depends who you ask. Regardless, to me personally, "they" in the above example sounds clunky at best and incorrect at worst. So I suppose my question can be rephrased as, 'is there any alternative to 'he or she', other than 'they'?" Secondly, to whoever tagged this as "politically-correct": acknowledging the existence of genderqueer or transgender people isn't a political issue at all, until those made uncomfortable by people unlike them make it one. Trying to avoid excluding and thus unconsciously discriminating against a group of people in your writing isn't born out of a need to be 'politically correct' - it's born out of basic human decency. Finally, yes, in the example above, I could use a comma and avoid the need for a pronoun at all - but the question I'm asking applies to instances where one may not want to do so (i.e. the sentences are long and stringy enough as it is). | I recently had somebody tell me that a mutual friend of ours who is prefers that people refer to him/her using the gender-indefinite pronoun they. In some cases, this almost seems okay: Kris left their umbrella at our house. On the other hand, if Kris is sitting right next to you, it feels very odd to say They (meaning just Kris) would like more cake. Or even odder, Kris would like some more cake, can you please pass it to they/them?" Are these usages grammatically correct? Are they in the process of becoming grammatically correct? Are there more correct alternatives? | Some conditions require that a person lie in bed all the time until recovered. Is there a name for such conditions or people experiencing them at the moment? For example, I am currently <bed sick> and can't help you with your homework. I tried looking for bed sick but hit a dead end. | eng_Latn | 16,870 |
Should we use IS or Are with 'Fifty meters (is, are) the length of this pool.' etc? Fifty meters (is, are) the length of this pool. Ten dollars (is, are) too much to pay for a book. One sixth of the cake (was, were) eaten. One half of the students (is, are) going. Kindly help me to answer those questions please.. | Three inches of snow is/are expected? I'm thinking that the singular verbs "is" and "has" are correct below because we're referring to a singular lump of precipitation. Although the subject "inches" is plural, I think the singular verbs are correct below. We wouldn't say, "Fifty dollars are a lot of money." I think this is basically the same concept. Good for the singular verbs below? One to 3 inches of snow "is" expected. (Not: ... are expected.) Ten inches of snow "has" fallen. (Not: ... have fallen.) | Is "has or will read" grammatical? I just wrote in an ELL chat room. But looking at it (or more accurately, listening to my "inner voice" trying to "read it aloud"), I find it bothers me a lot. A quick check on Google Books finds a claimed 432 written instances of , and 910 instances of , which suggests a significant minority of writers don't have a problem with the fact that the two different read's don't sound the same. When I check the same construction with other verbs that don't have the same written form for past participle and present tense, it seems people nearly always include both (e.g. :1230, :8; :357, :7). I'm not usually a big fan of "grammatical rules", but it seems to me there "ought" to be a rule that you shouldn't delete one instance of the verb unless it's "the same" as the one you're keeping. And it also seems to me that since language is primarily spoken, "the same" ought to mean "sounds the same when spoken", not "looks the same when written". Can anyone who knows more than me about formal rules of grammar settle this one? As an aside, offhand I can't think of any verb where the past participle and present tense sound the same but are written differently (maybe there aren't any), but would deletion be okay in that case? | eng_Latn | 16,871 |
Do you use 'who' or 'that' when referring to people There were 10 people who went to the store, vs. There were 10 people that went to the store. Can we not consider reversing the subject and verb to ask a question and thus aid us in clarifying the answer? Wouldn't we ask "Who went to the store?" and not "That went to the store?" | How to use "who" vs. "that" I often get confused when trying to use who vs that. Some examples that often confuse me: That The person that went to the store. The people that went shopping. The persons that went shopping. The group that went shopping. Who The person who went to the store. The people who go shopping. Please explain when to use either for plural subjects and singular subjects. Animate and inanimate objects as well. | "Has/Have/Had" as a main verb and auxiliary verb I need help regarding the use of has/have/had both as a main verb and as an auxiliary verb. In the sentence below, the word has acts as the main verb. I would normally follow it with the phrase "so do I." Kenny has a car, and so do I. On the other hand, the word has in the following sentence acts as an auxiliary verb. I would normally follow it with the phrase "so have I." Kenny has bought a car, and so have I. a) Are sentences 1 & 2 above correct? I'm under the impression that so do I is used when has/have/had is the main verb of a sentence, and so have/had I if it's an auxiliary verb in a sentence. b) Does the verb has/have always need a supporting "auxiliary verb" (either implied or mentioned)? (e.g., Kenny has a car = Kenny does have a car.) | eng_Latn | 16,872 |
Is "the sound of a good many voices" correct in this sentence and why? From Alice in Wonderland: She waited for some time without hearing anything more: at last came a rumbling of little cartwheels, and the sound of a good many voices all talking together: she made out the words: 'Where's the other ladder? Why did the writer add an article with the plural noun voices? | "There are a good many scholars ..." is it right? In "Seeing like a state" of James C.Scott there is a sentence at the beginning of a paragraph (Acknowledgements xi): There are a good many scholars whose writings opened up new perspectives for me or provided outstanding analyses of issues that I could not have hoped to study so comprehensively on my own. What worries me is a good many scholars. Is this some type of inversion or ancient English? Is this grammatically right? Why is a here? I thought that appropriate version would be There are many good scholars. Am I wrong? | "Series" – a noun of multitude similar to "lot", "majority", "percentage", "proportion"– verb agreement According to Garner's fourth edition Though serving as a plural when the need arises, series is ordinarily a singular noun. But it is also a noun of multitude, so that phrases such as a series of things take a plural verb. However, the collocation there {has been - is} a series has predominated in print sources. Common nouns of multitude: lot, majority, mass, minority, multitude, percentage, proportion, variety. However, reads When it has the singular sense of "one set," it takes a singular verb, even when series is followed by of and a plural noun: A series of lectures is scheduled. Are these dissimilar usages stylic advice? Secondly, the inversion after there also chooses singular elsewhere; why is it so? When the verb precedes the noun percentage, a singular verb is required. That is, a higher percentage of them are, but there is a higher percentage of them. | eng_Latn | 16,873 |
Repeated "to" in "to whom something is done to"? Is there a rule for this? For example, is it correct to say To whom will the package be delivered? or does it have to be To whom will the package be delivered to? I'm sorry if this is a duplicate, I didn't know how to properly search for this construction. | Redundant prepositions? This is a tooltip in an application: Identifies the site name to which the GL code belongs to. Can I say that it is incorrect to use "to" twice here and we should remove 1 of them? Other examples: Identifies the vendor to which the port speed is associated with. Provides the vendor to which the milestone is associated with. (They are both tooltips, too) The repetitions here are incorrect, aren't they? Please confirm. | This is the gift that my dad sent (to) me This is the gift that my dad sent me on my birthday. Vs This is the gift that my dad sent to me on my birthday. Is to required? Also Presenting you guys, the trailer of the film. Vs Presenting to you guys, the trailer of the film. Is to required? | eng_Latn | 16,874 |
Use of nor and or my question is can the word "or" follow the word "never" in a sentence - see below example. "I have never wished you to hurt me or anyone..." or should it be "I have never wished you to hurt me nor anyone"? Thanks. | Should I use 'or' or 'nor' after a negative statement? This document does not cover the SDK interfaces nor any other reference material. I think the above is correct, but my grammatical checker in Microsoft Word underlines nor and suggests or. Why? | What does "period" mean when someone says "Sth... Period"? I often hear US citizens say something like this: <Some phrases>. Period. What does period mean when it appears in a sentence by itself in this type of situation? | eng_Latn | 16,875 |
The [...], together with [...], make[s] In the following sentence construct: [...], together with [...], make [...] Would "make" be considered singular (and thus take an s), or plural? | Singular or plural verb form where subject includes a "parenthetical" element My question arises from , where OP asks whether he should use the singular or plural verb form after "the title, as well as the tone," As luck would have it, when I searched Google Books for , I found... ...and... At the risk of having this question closed as just peeving, I feel that the first one should have been plural "err", because without the commas it seems to me both "the title" and "the tone" have more or less equal status as "joint" subjects of the verb, making it plural. On the other hand, I feel the commas in the second example effectively demote "the tone" to "parenthetical" status (the clause is almost incidental). Since this encourages us think of "the title" as the primary subject, it should have been singular "derives". I'm no great fan of "grammatical rules", but it seems weird to me that the only two relevant examples for this specific wording should both (in opposite ways!) contradict my inclinations. What's going on? | Is this a grammatically correct line in a poem: “Will he roll the dice, and follow it to Vegas?”? I want to use the following line in a poem: "Will he roll the dice, and follow it to Vegas?" A couple of things to note; firstly, obviously I'm using "roll the dice" in both a figurative/idiomatic sense (as in taking a risk), and in a somewhat more literal sense (painting the image of the person actually following the dice that have been rolled to Las Vegas). That being said, my confusion here is if I can get away with using "follow it" or if I need to say "follow them" .... As I've read online "dice" traditionally refers to more than one die (i.e., the plural of die), but in the modern usage, "dice" can also be used to refer to the singular (i.e., just one die). So, it seems like if I was referring to the image of just one die, then the way I phrased it could be correct. However, the image I'm trying to paint is the one usually associated with the phrase "roll the dice" (i.e., rolling two dice)... So could "follow it" still be considered acceptable in this sense... or would I need to use "follow them"?... And if not referring to the dice themselves, could using, could the "it" be taken to refer to the act of rolling the dice, or would that not work either? Thanks so much in advance!! | eng_Latn | 16,876 |
Are numbers greater than one plural? Two apples are plural. When I refer to a number of items only by their count, is the count singular? For example: "Two is enough." Is that correct? | "Two are better than one" or "Two is better than one"? I just came across the phrase "Two are better than one", but I had always heard it in my head as "Two is better than one". This is partially due to the Boys Like Girls song. Which one of these is actually correct? | Is this a grammatically correct line in a poem: “Will he roll the dice, and follow it to Vegas?”? I want to use the following line in a poem: "Will he roll the dice, and follow it to Vegas?" A couple of things to note; firstly, obviously I'm using "roll the dice" in both a figurative/idiomatic sense (as in taking a risk), and in a somewhat more literal sense (painting the image of the person actually following the dice that have been rolled to Las Vegas). That being said, my confusion here is if I can get away with using "follow it" or if I need to say "follow them" .... As I've read online "dice" traditionally refers to more than one die (i.e., the plural of die), but in the modern usage, "dice" can also be used to refer to the singular (i.e., just one die). So, it seems like if I was referring to the image of just one die, then the way I phrased it could be correct. However, the image I'm trying to paint is the one usually associated with the phrase "roll the dice" (i.e., rolling two dice)... So could "follow it" still be considered acceptable in this sense... or would I need to use "follow them"?... And if not referring to the dice themselves, could using, could the "it" be taken to refer to the act of rolling the dice, or would that not work either? Thanks so much in advance!! | eng_Latn | 16,877 |
Which is correct: "What lurks underneath ARE our lives," or "What lurks underneath IS our lives"? I admit, the fact I can't figure this out is embarrassing. I'm not looking to change the wording of the sentence, but rather want an answer to which is the correct verb tense in this exact instance. Since "lives" is plural, then "are" should be the corresponding verb, one might argue. On the other hand, something seems intuitively amiss about that choice. Perhaps "what IS lurking underneath (IS) our lives is causing confusion for me, as I try to sort this out (I think "what" is being used as a singular pronoun. Or is it? Maybe it's being used as a determiner.) Maybe "our lives" is one singular concept that should match to a singular verb. I'm going down a rabbit hole here and can't seem to get out. Help! Any assistance is appreciated! Confusing examples that I've considered (that aren't helping) - What time ARE we going? What time IS it? (What is determining the verbs "are" and "is" in the above examples?!) Please help before I go insane! | Verb agreement with "what" This came up when reviewing a written English exercise, and I realized that I don't entirely trust my intuition on the answer. Which of the following is correct? Or are both valid? (Or is it strongly advisable to rewrite the sentence in some other way?) "I see what appears to be a man and his son." "I see what appear to be a man and his son." | Which form should be used for attributive nouns like “student union”: singular or plural, or possessive singular or possessive plural? When should a noun that’s used attributively to describe another noun be plural, and when should it be singular? And when should it be possessive, like baker’s dozen and when should it be plural possessive, like farmers’ market? In other words, why do we say teachers union rather than teacher union? And why do we say wedding planner rather than weddings planner? Which of these variants is or are correct? student union students union student’s union students’ union What about community values versus community’s values? Please note I am looking for a general rule or at least some tips. These are only examples. Update: It seems even native speakers follow their personal style to write such compound words. I wonder why in the IELTS listening section, the language learner has to write a specific form and there is no rule for this. | eng_Latn | 16,878 |
When to omit an article We are discussing the sentence "We can obtain the result by analytic inversion." It's from a math context. Is this an OK sentence, or does it have to be "an inversion"? If so, why? If not, why? Is this sentence particularly problematic because "inversion" can have both a non-countable (the process of inverting) and a countable (if you have different ways of inverting) interpretation? If this is an OK sentence, why is the sentence so much different if you replace "inversion" by "algorithm"? Clearly, in this case, you do need "an". | Dropping articles in the title (of an article or a section) or in the caption (of a figure or a table)? What's the general rule? It is said that "To give added punch, articles are often dropped in the titles" Source: Is there any general rule or reference about dropping articles, especially in academic research papers? | How can I explain to a non-native why the plural of a noun isn't used adjectivally? How can I explain to a non-native speaker that while this is correct: The felling of trees. And this is also correct: tree felling This is not: *trees felling To a non-native it seems very reasonable that since many trees are being felled and given that the felling of trees uses the plural, the inverse form would also use the plural and become trees felling. To a native speaker such as myself, the latter is very obviously wrong, but I couldn't figure out how to formalize this into a rule that a non-native can understand. | eng_Latn | 16,879 |
Is “It must be him with whom you enjoy doing your assignments, not me” correct? I’d like all of you to please consider the following sentence: It must be him with whom you enjoy doing your assignments, not me. I have known that after 'to be' verb pronouns words take the subjective form. For example: It is he who was absent yesterday. So, can I say that the first sentence is erroneous? Would it be correct to write It must be he with whom you enjoy doing your assignments, not I. | Which one is correct to say: "It's me" or "It's I"? I was taught at school that the following expression is not grammatically correct: Who is there? It's me. The correct one is: Who is there? It's I. Can you let me know which one is accurate? | Why isn’t singular ‘they’ used with 3Sg verb forms? There are many (duplicate) questions about the acceptance, popularity and history of singular they (and their, them and themself) around here, it even got a tag of its own. If I didn’t miss anything, however, the proper verb form hasn’t been questioned yet. As we all know, English third person singular pronouns (it, she, he and one, +body), names (Alice, Bob, …) and nouns (student, teacher, …) demand the +(e)s suffix be added to the finite verb form in simple present, where some auxiliary verbs have a “special” form (is < *bes / *ares and has < *haves). All other subjects don’t, including plural third person pronoun they. When the plural you replaced thou (with thee, thy / thine), the other marked verb form that had remained in English – i.e. suffix +(e)st or +t – vanished, too. The first and second persons only ever appear as pronouns (I, we; you), not names or nouns, so there was no strong inclination to keep the verbal inflection. The second person precedent would suggest that singular they be used with uninflected verb forms which is how it’s usually encountered in the wild. Assuming that they someday replaces he and she (and maybe it) it would lead to disagreement with the words the pronoun stands in for: Alice goes to her place by herself. Bob goes to his place by himself. Alice and Bob go to their place by themselves. – (common) Alice and Bob go to their places by themselves. – (separate) She goes to her place by herself. He goes to his place by himself. They go to their place by themselves. They go to their places by themselves. They ?goes to their place by themself. ditto They go to their place by themselves. They go to their places by themselves. They ?go to their place by ?themselves. ditto They go to their place by themselves. They go to their places by themselves. So why doesn’t singular they afford s on present-tense verbs like all other third person singular subjects do? I learned about singular they only long after I had been taught English as a second language in school. That’s why it’s still a conscious decision to use it and hence I could easily adapt to use s forms with it, but would that sound and look funny / strange / wrong to native speakers? | eng_Latn | 16,880 |
Not much has/have changed Which of the above is correct? I am in a dilemma which one is correct. I have an inkling that has is right. | "Much of it is" or "Much of it are"? I'm writing an college-entrance essay and for me it's imperative that I understand and implement the correct one of these two expressions: "Much of it is" or "Much of it are" If you need context: I'm having trouble with my writing. The reason I'm having trouble is that much of it is about.... Should there be an "is" or an "are"? | "Dare speak" vs. "dare to speak" vs "dares to speak" Which is the most appropriate improvement in the following I am surprised that he dares speak in such a tone to his father. a) he dares to speak b) he dare to speak c) he dare speak I think the answer should be 'c' but the book says 'a'. | eng_Latn | 16,881 |
Is there a rule to determine to which word is a pronoun related? In the following sentence: Dogs hate cats as they are naughty. does the pronoun "they" refer to dogs or cats? In other words, who is naughty here? | How are pronouns resolved? Are pronouns in English resolved syntactically or semantically? Do they always refer to the closest matching noun? A has these examples: We gave the bananas to the monkeys because they were hungry. We gave the bananas to the monkeys because they were ripe. We gave the bananas to the monkeys because they were here. My understanding was that pronouns are resolved syntactically, and so sentence 2 is semantically incorrect (unless the author really meant that the monkeys were ripe) and sentence 3 is not ambiguous. Is this wrong? Citations and references are most welcome. | What is the difference between “say” and “tell”? I really get confused when to use say and when to use tell. Which is appropriate in the following: What did he tell? / What did he say? What are you saying? / What are you telling? | eng_Latn | 16,882 |
To whoever wills ... Vs. To whomever wills So, is it "whoever" because it is the subject of the predicate "wills", or is it "whomever" because it is the object of the preposition "to"? | Subject vs. Object marking for whoever? I know similar questions have been asked before, but I'm having trouble reconciling the following sentence, received in an email: Can we ask whomever is your contact there to email us a job so we can check backward compatibility? I could understand using objective case if the sentence were "can we ask (him) to email...", but I get tripped up considering "whomever" to be the subject of "(he) is your contact there". | Should I capitalize the word "that" in a title? Since the version of the word "that" might matter to the correct answer, I'll provide the actual title in question: Title: Existing Solutions that Didn't Work If someone could explain the why of the answer, I would be appreciative. EDIT: It has been suggested that this is a duplicate, and that may be, in a sense. However, the after reading the suggested prior question, I'm no closer to my answer. I think it may have to do with my use of the word "that." Perhaps it is incorrect? Using these definitions of the word "that:" I'm having trouble figuring out which definition of that matches my title. Am I even using it correctly? Perhaps I should use which instead: Possible Title: Existing Solutions which Didn't Work If my original usage is incorrect, and I should use which, then the answer is simple since which is always a pronoun or adjective, and those are both capitalized in a title. However, I'm having difficulty understanding which part of speech that is in my original title. | eng_Latn | 16,883 |
Data as a plural noun In an academic writing, is it correct to make reference to "the data itself", being that data is a plural noun and itself is a singular pronoun? | Is "data" treated as singular or plural in formal contexts? My non-native English speaking friend just asked me: "Data is..." or "Data are..."? I said both but that's because I've been desensitized from reading/writing both (especially from writing code and adding quick comments). My question: Is it acceptable to utilize either for a university paper? Or is one safer than the other (when confronted with stickler professors)? Related questions: | The hidden flaw in "singular they"—what to do about reflexive pronouns? We have to a question about gender-neutral pronouns, in which he points to the "singular they" and its long history of use in English. (Note that he also advises against using it.) Example: If someone wants to watch TV tonight, they'll have to do the dishes. This avoids having to say "he or she" in mixed-gender situations. Okay, fine. I'm not going to get my panties in a bunch if people want to talk this way. But it occurrs to me that "singular they"—infelicitous at the best of times—really falls apart when extended into the realm of reflexive pronouns: If someone wants to watch TV tonight, they'll have to do the dishes all by themselves. [?] That feels very wrong. The only alternative, if one paints oneself into that corner, is to flip it back to singular: If someone wants to watch TV tonight, they'll have to do the dishes all by themself. [???] That feels worse. If I'm to state this as a question, I guess I would put it thus: How can use of a "singular they" truly be reconciled? Is it really as much of a linguistic dead end as it feels to me? | eng_Latn | 16,884 |
What is the appropriate usage of this Who's and What's to imply possession of a property Consider the following sentences: Please consider the person who's shirt is red. Please consider the car what's bumper is blue. Please consider the car who's bumper is blue. Number 3 sounds wrong to me and number 1 sounds right. A car cannot be a "who" unless its a work of fiction. The question here is whether or not number 2 is correct form. Is number 2 correct form? Why or why not? If not, what would be the correct form to refer to a specific inanimate object what's component is blue or based on some other criteria. What rule specifies that it is correct or not correct. | Can “whose” refer to an inanimate object? We lit a fire whose fuel was old timber wood. Is the word whose referring to fire, an inanimate object, correct in this sentence? Or is there a more appropriate word? | Is it: My apples and orange are/is wrong? Simple question: My apples and orange are wrong or My apples and orange is wrong I am not a native English speaker, and I am having some trouble choosing between plural are or singular is for that kind of example. | eng_Latn | 16,885 |
Why are ships always female? I was reading and it it's always refered as female. Is it unique to ships? I've learn in school that words in english does not have a sex, you can call a cats and dogs as "it". | Pronoun question: referring to inanimate objects as 'he' or 'she' I read the following claim concerning pronouns referring to inanimate objects: Anything that is meant to contain you, protect you or provide you with something beneficial is [often referred to as] a she; anything that is a perceived threat is a he. That's why cars, boats and some countries are she. Is this really the case, or is it just a subjective claim? (According to the using he/she for inanimate objects is not recommended and it should be used instead.) Is there a 'rule' for determining whether to use he, she or it based on the impression one would like to express? (I only know the 'rule' for animals: In the case where you know their gender and they are important to you, you refer to them using he/she. E.g. A dog attacked me in the street. It bit me. versus This is my dog Roger. He is 7 years old.) Have these practices changed over time? Note 1: There is already a similar question (), but that considers only the feminine case and none of the answers offers an objective discussion of the matter. Note 2: My native language is Czech, where the gender of the pronoun is based only on the grammatical gender of the noun. E.g. a cat (kočka) is always she, a dog (pes) is always he, a boat (loď) is always she and a car (auto) is always it. | Is this a grammatically correct line in a poem: “Will he roll the dice, and follow it to Vegas?”? I want to use the following line in a poem: "Will he roll the dice, and follow it to Vegas?" A couple of things to note; firstly, obviously I'm using "roll the dice" in both a figurative/idiomatic sense (as in taking a risk), and in a somewhat more literal sense (painting the image of the person actually following the dice that have been rolled to Las Vegas). That being said, my confusion here is if I can get away with using "follow it" or if I need to say "follow them" .... As I've read online "dice" traditionally refers to more than one die (i.e., the plural of die), but in the modern usage, "dice" can also be used to refer to the singular (i.e., just one die). So, it seems like if I was referring to the image of just one die, then the way I phrased it could be correct. However, the image I'm trying to paint is the one usually associated with the phrase "roll the dice" (i.e., rolling two dice)... So could "follow it" still be considered acceptable in this sense... or would I need to use "follow them"?... And if not referring to the dice themselves, could using, could the "it" be taken to refer to the act of rolling the dice, or would that not work either? Thanks so much in advance!! | eng_Latn | 16,886 |
Which of "game names" and "games names" is correct? What it's supposed to designate: A list of the name of each game. So there are multiple games and therefore multiple names. But should either or both take an s at the end in a list of game(s) name(s) ? | Plural nouns in nominal compounds I wonder whether there are rules or guidelines regarding plural nouns in nominal compounds. For example a compound university students list. If there are many lists and many universities is it grammatically correct to say universities students lists? Must all elements be in the plural form or can some be left in singular, even though the meaning is plural? I've seen an expression universities student lists; is it correct? | What is the average number of deaths per episode? While watching Game of Thrones and seeing people being killed left and right, I began to wonder: Just how many people die per episode (not just major characters but the minor characters as well)? I'm just wondering about an average, but a list that mentions the number of deaths for each episode would be good too. | eng_Latn | 16,887 |
Who vs that correct use That is used as a restrictive form and can be used with people, animals and things. Who is mostly used with people. I am confused where to use these two in the following particular situation: Examples The child that came here yesterday is dead. The boys who were watching the match clapped heartily. What is difference between these two sentences? | Looking at the kids which - or that/who? We look at the kids which/that/who skillfully use tablets with the help of their small fingers and we understand that to surprise the younger generation will be more difficult each year. Is the relative pronoun which acceptable here, or does it look totally out of place, because it befits a "non-restrictive relative clause" more? It seems to me that the pronoun that looks best in the bolded position, with who an acceptable second choice. But it's hard to pin down why. | Difference between "did save" and "saved" What is the difference between the two following sentences? 1) Where did you save that file? And 2) Where you saved that file ? | eng_Latn | 16,888 |
Genders for arbitrary occupations Let's say I have a sentence similar to When a scientist publishes results, she must be careful to not enter the incorrect data. However, I am confused as to what I should use in place of the "she". Using a "she" to refer to an arbitrary scientist, to me, seems just as weird as referring to an arbitrary scientist as "he", while "they" just seems grammatically incorrect. I have been told that the grammatically correct, gender neutral form of the sentence would be When a scientist publishes results, he/she must be careful to not enter the incorrect data. But, come on, I'm not going to write "he/she" every time I have to refer to someone of unspecified gender. How do I go about dealing with this? I understand that I could simply rephrase the sentence as When scientists publish results, they must be careful to not enter incorrect data. This is what I do in most cases when I am confronted with this problem. My question is: What should I do if I want to stay as close as possible to the original sentence structure (for instance, maintaining the singular form of scientist? What should I do in general when I am confronted with situations like this one? What options are there (e.g. converting to plural)? | Is there a correct gender-neutral singular pronoun ("his" vs. "her" vs. "their")? Is there a pronoun I can use as a gender-neutral pronoun when referring back to a singular noun phrase? Each student should save his questions until the end. Each student should save her questions until the end. | Usage of singular or plural SI base units when written in both symbol as well as name I have multiple doubts related to the usage of singular or plural SI base units when written in both symbol as well as name. I have framed this question under two parts, namely, Part (a) and Part (b). Each part has three sentences which I have written on the basis of my understanding. Please answer these 6 sentences/questions. Part (a): says that while using prefix for e.g., centi as in centimeter, it is l = 75 cm long.(correct) l = 75 cms long. (wrong) Does this rule is used for all SI prefixes (having powers of 10)? In this regard, we should be saying, or writing that, "how many cm are there in one metre?" (while saying we should say centimter or centimetres?) Please strike-through the wrong SI unit in the following sentences. My weight is 70 kg / kgs, or My weight is 70 kilogram / kilograms. Part (b): and the page next to above web link says, we should write: 2.6 m/s, or 2.6 metres per second. In this regard, we should say, or write: Its speed is 0.26 metres per second. This pipe is 0.75 metres long. How many cm are there in 2 metres? | eng_Latn | 16,889 |
Should it be: "each other's belongings" or "each others' belongings"? In this sentence: I'm proud we're not one of those couples who have to snoop through each other's belongings. Is the above correct? Or should it be "each others' belongings"? Can you ever say each others' in any situation? Thanks for any advice! | Should "each" be followed by a singular or plural possessive? If a possessive noun, which is plural, is preceded by "each", then should it use the singular or plural possessive form? For example, which of the following is correct? spend time in each other's presence spend time in each others' presence | Which form should be used for attributive nouns like “student union”: singular or plural, or possessive singular or possessive plural? When should a noun that’s used attributively to describe another noun be plural, and when should it be singular? And when should it be possessive, like baker’s dozen and when should it be plural possessive, like farmers’ market? In other words, why do we say teachers union rather than teacher union? And why do we say wedding planner rather than weddings planner? Which of these variants is or are correct? student union students union student’s union students’ union What about community values versus community’s values? Please note I am looking for a general rule or at least some tips. These are only examples. Update: It seems even native speakers follow their personal style to write such compound words. I wonder why in the IELTS listening section, the language learner has to write a specific form and there is no rule for this. | eng_Latn | 16,890 |
Understanding the usage of "," before "which" in a sentence I have difficulty in understanding which of the following is correct: Team cannot be fully discussed without considering two factors which are teams’ makeup and teams’ performance. or Team cannot be fully discussed without considering two factors , which are teams’ makeup and teams’ performance. | Comma before which I'm not sure which of the following sentences is correct. Is the comma mandatory, optional or unnecessary? I've googled a bit about this topic, but I got confused. Our mapping contains 2000 words, which map to more than one lemma. or Our mapping contains 2000 words which map to more than one lemma. Context: In total, there are more than 2000 words. I've read . If I understand the answers correctly, my "which map to more than one lemma" is a defining clause and no comma is required. But is it wrong to add one? | Is it: My apples and orange are/is wrong? Simple question: My apples and orange are wrong or My apples and orange is wrong I am not a native English speaker, and I am having some trouble choosing between plural are or singular is for that kind of example. | eng_Latn | 16,891 |
I want to speak in English that I have a list with car names. Should I say "cars list" or "car list"? What if I have more than one attributive noun. Should all be singular? For example I have two lists with commands. Each list has a different language and I want to merge them. Should I say merged two different language commands lists or merged two different language command lists? | Sorry for the title, it is not very evident and intuitive but I really do not how to tell it better... Well, you know, several times, or better, many times, we use this form: If I want to say: "development of special weapons was the first point in Hitler's program..." I will say this (a better form): "special weapon development was..." OK... is it "special weapon development" or "special weapons development" (note the plural...) what's the grammar rule in order to understand how to use this very used form? | Some conditions require that a person lie in bed all the time until recovered. Is there a name for such conditions or people experiencing them at the moment? For example, I am currently <bed sick> and can't help you with your homework. I tried looking for bed sick but hit a dead end. | eng_Latn | 16,892 |
I don’t know any man that is present here. I don’t know any man who is present here. Which is correct? What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences? | How does one decide whether to use who or that? In the title example: The correct pronoun is who. The correct pronoun is that. Either is correct. They're interchangeable. It depends on the context. | Let he who believes in this prophet speak now what he knows. Let him who believes in this prophet speak now what he knows. | eng_Latn | 16,893 |
I'm writing content with dynamic names, e.g. "Alice" or "Bill" may be substituted in place of (name). Without knowing the gender of the name, what is the best way to reference the individual? Using "their" feels clunky. I could try to write the content in a way to avoid this issue but it gets complicated. Sample: (name1) needs to rewrite their resume, but (name2) does not. Alice needs to rewrite her resume, but Bill does not. (ok) Alice needs to rewrite their resume, but Bill does not. (feels clunky - is this ok?) Links to related articles: | Is this sentence grammatically correct? Anyone who loves the English language should have a copy of this book in their bookcase. or should it be: Anyone who loves the English language should have a copy of this book in his or her bookcase. | Example sentence: I love when your dog just lets you sit there to pet them. You don’t necessarily know if they are enjoying it, but they love you enough to just sit there with you for a bit. Is this correct? We assume the words "you" and "your" refer to the speaker of the sentence, and not to the listener, as second-person usually does. But it also refers to dog owners in general. I have always been curious about this. | eng_Latn | 16,894 |
In publications the wording often resembles the following: "We found that our results followed what we found in our previous research." I am now writing a publication alone, with no co-authors. Is it bad form to use "my" in place of "our" in such cases? | Which personal pronoun is appropriate in single-author papers - 'I' or 'we'? Could the use of 'I' be considered egotistical? Or will the use of 'we' be considered to be grammatically incorrect? | I've always been taught to put myself last when referring to myself in the same sentence as others but the usage of "me and..." seems to be everywhere these days. The misuse of the word "me" instead of "I" aside, is there some new rule I haven't heard of? Shouldn't we put ourselves last regardless of the "me"/"I" usage? Examples of "correct" usage: My friends and I went for some ice cream. Did you see my friends and me at the ice cream stand? Examples of "incorrect" usage: Me and my friends went for some ice cream. Did you see me and my friends at the ice cream stand? Note: I was also taught that the only person who could put themselves first was the queen. | eng_Latn | 16,895 |
This pipe has a very slow leak. What is the pipe for and what is the best way to stop the leak? | I noticed there is a square knob sticking out of my basement wall. Does anyone know what this is? | I wonder which of the two is correct: I have a red and a blue car. I have a red and a blue cars. or Everyone has a left and a right arms. Everyone has a left and a right arm. My (non-native) inclination would be for option 1, as it sounds better. On the other hand, in the following examples, the plural sounds better to me. Everyone has left and right arms. I have old and new cars. (when I only have only one old car and one new car) The left and the right arms are... But are they correct? | eng_Latn | 16,896 |
If you let a person in, make sure to see their ID first. Is it grammatically correct to use a plural determiner for a singular noun in situations like this when it implies that “person”, “client”, “tenant” etc. can be either he or she? | I often use to keep my sentences gender neutral. Many of my friends (none of them are native speakers), however, consider this to be grammatically incorrect, and suggest me not to use it in formal English exams. My questions are: Is singular they widely accepted in English speaking countries such as America and Britain? Is it formal enough to be used in formal situations, such as a public speech? Is it casual enough to be used in informal situations, such as gossiping among friends? | I never hear "scissor" or "pant" or "jean". It's always "scissors", "pants", and "jeans", respectively. Are they considered plural? | eng_Latn | 16,897 |
possessives and number (sing./pl) I'm revising a text containing these two sentences: a) Students’ sex was coded by using their first names. b) Students’ birthday was self-reported in the survey. I'm sure the correct version should have "students' birthdays" because the rule in English is to use the plural for the possessed objects, even if the possessors only have one each. But if I apply this logic to sentence a) about sex, I get "students' sexes" ... which seems ridiculous. Why? They are both potentially plural, yet each student has only one sex, and one birthday. I wonder if the parameter "sex" has only a superficial resemblance to the parameter "birthday". Have you any ideas? Many thanks. | Do you pluralize the singular possessions of / items or people associated with individual members of a plural group? In a situation where say a group (or at least a plurality) of men is being addressed — for example on a sign passed by many married men — which is correct? "Remind your wife." or "Remind your wives." | "A few" takes a singular or plural verb in present simple tense? Does "a few" take a singular or plural verb in present simple tense? A few men lifts the table. A few men lift the table. A few frogs jumps out of the lake. A few frogs jump out of the lake. I have searched the same question in google, but I see both answers. Which one is correct? How come "a few" is plural? Even though it refers to many, "a" makes "few" a singular, so it should take a singular verb, right? Should I always put "a" in front of "few"? For example, are the following correct? Few men lift the table. Few frogs jump out of the lake. | eng_Latn | 16,898 |
What is the difference between the phrases below? He dies. ( On the TV screen I saw. "Mandela dies at 94 " ) He died. ( On another canal simultaneously it was written " Mandela died at 94. ") She / he has died vs he died vs he dies When they want to say someone just died they use all forms above in the first day of his or her death. It is confusing. | Why are news headlines in present tense if they refer to past events? In news papers we see headings like this "India signs a pact with Russia" "Sachin hits another century" "Obama wins presidential election" These are completed events, aren't they? Then, why are these sentences not mentioned in past tense? | Is this a grammatically correct line in a poem: “Will he roll the dice, and follow it to Vegas?”? I want to use the following line in a poem: "Will he roll the dice, and follow it to Vegas?" A couple of things to note; firstly, obviously I'm using "roll the dice" in both a figurative/idiomatic sense (as in taking a risk), and in a somewhat more literal sense (painting the image of the person actually following the dice that have been rolled to Las Vegas). That being said, my confusion here is if I can get away with using "follow it" or if I need to say "follow them" .... As I've read online "dice" traditionally refers to more than one die (i.e., the plural of die), but in the modern usage, "dice" can also be used to refer to the singular (i.e., just one die). So, it seems like if I was referring to the image of just one die, then the way I phrased it could be correct. However, the image I'm trying to paint is the one usually associated with the phrase "roll the dice" (i.e., rolling two dice)... So could "follow it" still be considered acceptable in this sense... or would I need to use "follow them"?... And if not referring to the dice themselves, could using, could the "it" be taken to refer to the act of rolling the dice, or would that not work either? Thanks so much in advance!! | eng_Latn | 16,899 |
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