Sentence check

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BMO  #48798  Sun, 03 Oct 04 05:20 PM
are these correct?

1. Some adults exhibited homosexual tendency when they were at a young age.
2. My family frowns on cohabitations without a marriage.
3. Too much parental controls inhibit children's creative minds.
4. Passengers are prohibited from leaving their seats until the plane has come to a complete stop and the fasten-seat-belt sign has been turned off.
  
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haoqide  #48806  Sun, 03 Oct 04 06:09 PM
1. Some adults exhibited homosexual tendencies at a young age.

2. My family frowns on cohabitation without marriage.
3. Too many parental controls inhibit children's creative development.

4. Passengers are prohibited from leaving their seats until the plane has come to a complete stop and the "Fasten Seatbelts" sign has been turned off.


Good job, bmo! Keep it up!

-Haoqide
  
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CalifJim  #48809  Sun, 03 Oct 04 06:14 PM
Not bad at all!

Let's do the real mistakes first:

In sentence 3, you have "much ... controls". You need "many ... controls". "much" goes with a singular noun; "many" with a plural.

In sentence 1, "homosexual tendencies" is what you need to write. A singular noun ("tendency") can't occur without a determiner ("a", "the", etc.).

The others are just minor details:

In 1. it would be more usual to see: "tendencies when they were young" or "tendencies at a young age".

In 2. "marriage" could be used as well as "a marriage". (Either a count or a noncount interpretation of "marriage" is possible.)

Hope that helped. Smile [:)]
  
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BMO  #48822  Sun, 03 Oct 04 07:47 PM
Thank you both. How come cohabitation should be singular?
  
CalifJim  #48830  Sun, 03 Oct 04 09:44 PM
Ah, yes. I skipped that one, and haogide caught it!
"cohabitation" is a noncount noun. As such, no plurals allowed!

It is noncount because you are talking about "the practice of cohabitation" (in general) or "the state of cohabitation" (in general), not (specific) "instances of cohabitation".

I know that count/noncount problems can be difficult and that sometimes explanations don't help, but this is the best explanation I have at the moment!

Smile [:)]

  
BMO  #48860  Mon, 04 Oct 04 01:11 AM
thanks. it is one of my weak areas - the noncount noun. i will try more. i think it is in general or not.
  
BMO  #48885  Mon, 04 Oct 04 05:17 AM
okay, two more tries:

1. Rampage loggings have destroyed Bengal tiger's habitats in South Asia.
2. The first inhabitants of Taiwan, known as the Natives who comprise less than 2% of the Island's population, are believed to have migrated from islands south of Taiwan thousands of years earlier than the Chinese settlers.
  
haoqide  #48980  Mon, 04 Oct 04 06:25 PM
1. Rampage logging has destroyed the habitat of the Bengal tigers in South Asia.

2. The first inhabitants of Taiwan, known as Natives, comprise less than two percent of the island's population, and they are believed to have migrated from islands south of Taiwan thousands of years before the first Chinese settlers came to the island.

I hope that helps.

-Haoqide
  
BMO  #48986  Mon, 04 Oct 04 07:37 PM
thanks. I don't know what to do with the non-count noun, singular and plural, etc. where do I start? I think my problems are article and non-count nouns.
  
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