Search results for 'tag:American English tag:Nouns' matching tags 'American English' and 'Nouns'

Re: Was or Were?

richard_s — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:57:18 GMT

According to Swan (Practical English UsageÂ (p519) - a fairly accurate source), in British English collective nouns can be either singular or plural. Â 'Plural forms are common when the group is seen as a collection of people.' Â This fits with the usage that I hear in Australia. Â It seems that in American English, collective nouns are usually considered singular.

Re: Was or Were?

richard_s — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:50:45 GMT

According to Swan (Practical English Usage (p519) - a fairly accurate source), in British English collective nouns can be either singular or plural. Â 'Plural forms are common when the group is seen as a collection of people.' Â This fits with the usage that I hear in Australia. Â It seems that in American English, collective nouns are usually considered singular.

Re: Was or Were?

richard_s — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:32:15 GMT

Personally, I would use 'was', but I seem to remember once reading that British English favoured one and American the other, particularly in situations like 'my family is crazy' or 'my family are crazy'. Â Unfortunately, I can't remember which one is British and which is American. Â Here in Australia, we tend to follow British more than American English, suggesting that treating groups as singular nouns is British.

Re: Singular & plural words

Clive — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:12:16 GMT

Hi,
It can be used as a countable noun. eg This is my medication. These are my medications.
Or as a non-countable noun, eg The doctor gave me some medication.

I believe the word 'medication' is more common in American English.

Clive

Re: Kind Regards or Kind regards or kind regards...?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:14:30 GMT

Written Formula for Ending a Letter (British English)

Informal, personal (to close friends and family):

With love
Best wishes

Semi-formal / informal (emails, notes, business memos):

Kind regards
Best regards
Regards

Formal letters:

Yours sincerely
- Use when you know the addressee by name (Dear John / Dear Mr Smith). You can only be sincere with someone you know.
Yours faithfully
- Use when you don't know the persons name (Dear Sir or Madam).

Case / Capitalisation

Sentence case applies. Only capitalise the first letter of a sentence (with the exception of proper nouns and special conventions).

Punctuation

Open punctuation and mixed punctuation are common in the UK. If you begin the letter with "Dear Jane," (or "Dear Jane:" in American English), then the closing should be punctuated with a comma (e.g. "Kind regards, John"). These commas (or colon and comma in American English) would be omitted when writing a letter in open punctuation (as the line breaks make such punctuation redundant).

Would you not say "an ill man"?

jazzmaster — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:00:06 GMT

Hi, this is my virgin post.
I need your opinions on usages of a couple of words. I picked these up in an English language forum and could not figure out by myself.

>The word "ill":
In American English, you do not say "an ill person" but "a sick person" as explained in an unabridged dictionary. However, descriptions of bad happenings or behaviors such as "ill fate, ill manners, ill weather" are widely used. I understand the meaning of "ill" as in "ill man" is different from that of "ill fate". Anyway, would English-speaking natives not say "an ill man or ill patient"?

>The word "pale":
Here is another word which was claimed to be not placeable as a modifier in front of nouns such as "boy" and "man" or any other humans. Hence, you do not say "a pale boy" or "pale men", while "pale eyes" or "pale complexions" are OK. I think it otherwise and the word can be used in any situation. It there any rules?

I really appreciate any input of yours.

Re: sport

Yoong Liat — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:25:58 GMT

Hi LiJ

This topic has been discussed before and I hope you will find the following helpful.

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: participle as a subject

CalifJim — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:48:17 GMT

Cool Breeze
I am walking. Walking is an adjective?

"allegedly" See below.

From Introduction to the Grammar of English (Huddleston, Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

... participles are said to be 'verbal adjectives'.

First example given:

He was telling the truth.

Later:

... a present participle ... allegedly has adjectival properties. I say 'allegedly' because it is difficult to see any significant functional resemblance to an adjective ... [in the first example on the list].

He goes on to say that the -ing words in such examples are clearly verbs, while in other contexts they are clearly adjectives.

_____

With respect to the original question then, I suppose the more accurate description is that participles are either parts of verb phrases or are adjectives. In either case, a participle -- being verb or adjective -- cannot be the subject of a sentence unless it is in the cleft sentence structure, as illustrated earlier in the thread by GG. I think that's the only structure that allows a participle or an adjective to be promoted to the status of a noun phrase so it can be a subject.

At least that's my claim. Maybe someone can provide a counterexample. That would be instructive.

Edit:

'Destroyed' is the best description of that town.

Here a participle (adjective) is promoted to a noun and is the subject of the sentence. So there are cases other than the cleft sentence structure that allow it. Nevertheless, note the quotes. It works in the same way that anything in quotes can be promoted to subject:

'Xygneoowytoeyy' is a nonsense word.

'got into the truck' is not a complete sentence.

_____

Your question opens up a good many sticky points in the terminology. Do we (Can we) talk about certain structures by naming them without regard to their function in context? Or not? Probably not. Is love a noun or a verb? Only context will tell.

Cool Breeze
To hear him sing is an unforgettable experience.

to hear him sing is a sentence with a non-finite verb used as a noun phrase in a higher level sentence. The idea is that the terminological identity of a word or group of words may change depending on which level in a hierarchy of clauses it is considered. At the lowest level of the "tree", to hear is indeed an infinitive (a non-finite verb), but in the context of the whole sentence (higher in the hierarchical tree), to hear him sing is the subject of the main clause, is nominal in nature, and is called a noun phrase. (Infinitives are often nominal in nature, so this is not surprising; for example, [I want + noun phrase] can take either of these forms: I want some pizza. I want to sing.)

Cool Breeze
Using an infinitive as a subject may not be common in American English

Actually, infinitives are used in AmE as subjects. The location geographically or historically has nothing to do with it. But infinitives (and their complement(s), if any), taken together, can make noun phrases.

To be absolutely precise, it is a noun phrase (NP) that must be the subject of a sentence. I oversimplified by saying 'noun or pronoun'.

Re: participle as a subject

Cool Breeze — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:02:01 GMT

CalifJim
The basic problem is that a participle is an adjective. Adjectives can't be subjects. Only nouns (or pronouns) can.
CJ

I am walking. Walking is an adjective?

To hear him sing is an unforgettable experience. To hear is an infinitive, in other words, a verb, not a noun or a pronoun. Using an infinitive as a subject may not be common in American English but it has been used that way for centuries - and is used as a subject in other varieties of English even today.

Re: illegal immigrant

Delmobile — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:09:34 GMT

You could say "California is the most heavily populated with illegal immigrants state in the US," maybe, but it's very awkward. I would say, "California has the largest population of illegal immigrants in the US."

Even in American English, with its many nouns used as verbs, hyphenated compounds made up on the spot, and other shortcuts, it is sometimes impossible to avoid chains of prepositional phrases.