ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: cheerleader

Grammar Geek — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:07:04 GMT

I know that people want to work out the logic and the grammar, but as a matter of actual practice, rather than tying yourself in knots over this, you can simply rewrite it.

One after the other, the cheerleaders praticed their moves. Or, One after the other, the cheerleaders practiced the move [that was causing them such difficulties].

Re: cheerleader

Clive — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:00:52 GMT

Hi,

'Their moves' is more inclusive, since it avoids the assumption that only females are cheerleaders.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: cheerleader

LanguageAngel — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 17:27:07 GMT

Since the phrase "after cheerleader" is a prepostional phrase, the simple sentence should be "Cheerleader was practicing her move." and NOT "Cheerleader were practicing their moves."

Two things- Does each cheerleader only have one move? The way you stated your first sentece made it seem that way. Also, I believe the word you're trying to use is "practicing" NOT "practing"

"Cheerleader after cheerleader was practicing her moves." Should be right.

Re: cheerleader

Aperisic — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 14:00:33 GMT

Maybe woman is not the most appropriate word to examine this. I've tried some other

"home after home is" 620 usages
"home after home are" 0 usages
"home after home was" 1.550 usages
"home after home were" 0 usages
"car after car is" 1.400 usages
"car after car are" 490 usages
"car after car was" 8.840 usages
"car after car were" 420 usages
"door after door is" 1.020 usages
"door after door are" 34 usages
"door after door was" 2.450 usages
"door after door were" 216 usages
"stone after stone is" 302 usages
"stone after stone are" 32 usages
"stone after stone was" 550 usages
"stone after stone were" 79 usages
"wall after wall is" 592 usages
"wall after wall are" 88 usages
"wall after wall was" 358 usages
"wall after wall were" 0 usages

Singular is always far more preferable.

However, it is always possible to take woman after woman being a subject in plural, for stylistic reasons.

woman after woman (is/has...) = every single woman (normal)
woman after woman (are/have...) = all woman (not frequent)

Re: cheerleader

LearningNerd — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 06:17:32 GMT

Interesting. I wonder if there's an official word on this anywhere.

Well, no matter, I guess; this doesn't come up too often.

Re: cheerleader

Marius Hancu — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 00:52:32 GMT

While arguing in the favor of singular, I should mention that one can find both singular and plural forms in the press, say inThe New York Times:

Breaking Ranks, Lab Offers Test To Assess Risk of Breast Cancer

... those in which woman after woman has been stricken by breast ...

Citing Abuse, Women Ask For Clemency In Killings

"Woman after woman that I interviewed have lived ...

However, at Google:
"Woman after woman has"
is 4 times more frequent than
"Woman after woman have"
supporting the view here.

Re: cheerleader

Aperisic — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 23:57:30 GMT

Cheerleader after cheerleader was practicing her move.

Though it does not have the same meaning it does have the same structure as

(A)cheerleader was practicing her move after (another) cheerleader.

After (a) cheerleader, (another) cheerleader was practicing her move.

You can understand after cheerleader as a group of words having a function of an adverb. Precisely with plural you can write only this way

They were practicing their move, cheerleader after cheerleader.

Cheerleader after cheerleader, they were practicing their move.

In this case, a complete expression cheerleader after cheerleader has an adverbial function: (each) cheerleader (in a group) after (each) cheerleader (in a group)

In English there must be a subject in the sentence, and there is no word to be a subject in

Cheerleader after cheerleader was practicing her move.

except cheerleader. And that gives us no right to use plural. Another example:

[Who] An apple [what] was cut. [Who] An apple [when] after an apple [what]was cut. [Who] They [what] were cut [how] (an) apple by (an) apple ((an) apple after (an) apple).

So two (third is only an inversion) options

Cheerleader [when:] after cheerleader is/was ...
They are/were ... ,[how:] cheerleader after cheerleader.
[how:]Cheerleader after cheerleader, they are/were...

Re: cheerleader

Marius Hancu — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 23:31:30 GMT

They were coming one after another to do their practice
Cheerleader after cheeleader
(not all simultaneously), thus was

Re: cheerleader

LearningNerd — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 17:49:17 GMT

The first one, because -- actually, I'm not quite sure how to explain it. Well, a quick search on google for "thing after thing was" has about 100 results, while "thing after thing were" has none.

Hmm. As I understand it, the only way to form a plural subject out of two singular nouns is to join them with the word "and". Other joining words like "or" require a singular verb, and I guess "after" does, too. There's probably a word for this sort of "one after another" construction -- does anyone know?

cheerleader

BW2/3 — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 03:07:34 GMT

Cheerleader after cheeleader was practing her move.

Cheerleader after cheeleader were practing their moves.

Which is correct- and why?

Thank you