ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: sport and sports

Yoong Liat — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:16:03 GMT

Hi Inchoateknowledge

According to the Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, if someone excels in something or excels at it, they are very good at it. Therefore, 'excel in' and 'excel at' are both correct.

Re: sport and sports

Inchoateknowledge — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 07:24:14 GMT

sport
noun
[C ] game
Football, cricket and hockey are all team sports.
I enjoy winter sports like skiing and skating.

sports

adjective

relating to sport:
sports equipment.
It's the school sports day on Monday.

She excels at sport. The preposition should be "in"

She excels the others at sport

Re: sport and sports

Yoong Liat — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:11:36 GMT

In British English 'sport' is the general term and is an uncountable noun.

For example: (1) He is not interested in sport. (2) There is too much sport on television. (3) She excels at sport.

If it refers to particular types of sport, the term 'sport/s' (a countable noun) is used.

For example: (1) Bobby's sport is tennis. (2) My favourite sports are tennis and hockey.

In American English, 'sports' is a plural noun.

For example: He likes watching sports on television.

Re: sport and sports

Mister Micawber — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:17:47 GMT

I'm not sure of the full extent of your enquiry, Believer, but as for Which sports do you like?, I agree that the speaker expects a response of more than one sport; otherwise, the question would be, e.g., What sport is your favorite?

sport and sports

Believer — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:30:20 GMT

Hi,

Lately I am seeing a lot of sentences with the words "sport" and "sports" and want to ask you for the reason why a person would choose to use the one and not the other. I thought the plural form of sport is sports

(Is he asking this assuming that the person who will answer the following questions will mention several sports?)

Which sports do you like?

Which sports are fun to play?

Which sports are in the Olympics?