ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Grammar Geek — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:23:55 GMT

Food rarely takes an s. There are situations, but for now, just assume that food doesn't take an s.

Drinks take an s when you are talking about servings of drinks. The waitress is bringing our drinks.

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Belly — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:07:48 GMT

Feebs11 wrote:
"Humanitarian aid" is the whole thing - the packages, the helicopters, the aid drops, the money donated to pay for these, the work of the people who are doing all of these things.

No, you do not add "s" to food, drink, etc in this context. It is food and drink in general..

So which context we have to add s to food and drink?

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Feebs11 — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:27:25 GMT

"Humanitarian aid" is the whole thing - the packages, the helicopters, the aid drops, the money donated to pay for these, the work of the people who are doing all of these things.

No, you do not add "s" to food, drink, etc in this context. It is food and drink in general..

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Belly — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:54:10 GMT

Feebs11 wrote:

Hi,

Actually, in sentence one, the thing I want to ask is:

If you can imagine, when inundations come to one province, people of other provinces donate food, drink, money etc (I'm still confused when can we use plural or singular for food and drink here The verb relates to "people", not to the goods they are donating).... and they pack them all in packages which are ("packages" are plural) then sent to the poor province... What can we call that? food drop / aid package drop

Thanks Feb, but will humanitarian aid do? One more thing I asked is, should we add "s" to foods, drinks, ect, when and when not to?

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Feebs11 — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:10:55 GMT

Hi,

Actually, in sentence one, the thing I want to ask is:

If you can imagine, when inundations come to one province, people of other provinces donate food, drink, money etc (I'm still confused when can we use plural or singular for food and drink here The verb relates to "people", not to the goods they are donating).... and they pack them all in packages which are ("packages" are plural) then sent to the poor province... What can we call that? food drop / aid package drop

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Mister Micawber — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:27:42 GMT

Humanitarian aid.

Please don't quote entire long posts if it is not necessary to your question, Belly-- it makes me work much harder to try to find your question.

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Belly — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 08:57:20 GMT

Mister Micawber wrote:

1) What can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when there is a catastrophe happens? -- (Emergency) Aid packages? Air drops?

2) About punctuation, should we punctuate before or after the : She told me," I want to go out. " or She told me," I want to go out".) -- Most American punctuation guides place the full stop (or period) invariably inside the quotation mark, while British guides place it inside or out depending on the part to which it is applicable. I think. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, there is contention, sometimes heated

" = quotation mark

, = comma

' = apostrophe

/ = slash or backslash

) = parenthesis (AmE) or bracket (BrE)

# = number sign, pound sign, octothorpe

? = question mark, interrogation point

! = exclamation mark/point

There are probably other names as well.

Do I need two )) here or just one? -- Two, but it would be better to rearrange the sentence to avoid the duplication; it is unattractive.

Hi,

Actually, in sentence one, the thing I want to ask is:

If you can imagine, when inundations come to one province, people of other provinces donates food, drink, money etc (I'm still confused when can we use plural or singular for food and drink here).... and they pack them all in packages which is then sent to the poor province... What can we call that?

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Mister Micawber — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 05:32:38 GMT

1) What can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when there is a catastrophe happens? -- (Emergency) Aid packages? Air drops?

2) About punctuation, should we punctuate before or after the : She told me," I want to go out. " or She told me," I want to go out".) -- Most American punctuation guides place the full stop (or period) invariably inside the quotation mark, while British guides place it inside or out depending on the part to which it is applicable. I think. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, there is contention, sometimes heated

" = quotation mark

, = comma

' = apostrophe

/ = slash or backslash

) = parenthesis (AmE) or bracket (BrE)

# = number sign, pound sign, octothorpe

? = question mark, interrogation point

! = exclamation mark/point

There are probably other names as well.

Do I need two )) here or just one? -- Two, but it would be better to rearrange the sentence to avoid the duplication; it is unattractive.

1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when there

Belly — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 02:03:07 GMT

1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when there is a catastrophe happens (Ex: Inundation etc.)?

2) About punctuation, should we punctuate before or after the : She told me:" I want to go out. " I nod or She told me:" I want to go out". I nod) ( I'm sorry but could you let me know how to call this and some more (ie: " , ' / ) # ? ! )) Do I need two )) here or just one? .