Search results for 'tag:Countable nouns tag:Pronouns' matching tags 'Countable nouns' and 'Pronouns'

Re: words like (Information)

Mr Wordy — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:43:47 GMT

These are often called "uncountable nouns" (or "mass nouns"). For example, you can count apples -- one apple, two apples, three apples -- but you can't count "informations". There are lots and lots of them in English. Some examples are at http://learning.cl3.ust.hk/english-grammar-guide/Nouns_and_Pronouns/noncount_nouns1x.htm. A longer list is at http://simple.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Mass_nouns. A definitive "complete" list is not feasible.

Edit: Note that a number of nouns can be countable or uncountable, depending on context. To pick an example at random, the Wiktionary list includes "change", which is uncountable in "change is a good thing", but countable in "we need to make some changes".

Mistakes made by Chinese Learners

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:30:26 GMT

Hi everyone

I just wondered if anyone could help - I have to write a profile of a chinese learner of English (completely made up). In it I must put any difficulties that the learner has in learning English as an L2. I have got so far:

Intonation transfer from L1 may cause them to be perceived as rude/inconsiderate, more serious transfer may affect comprehensiveness.
No inflections in L1 - tenses difficult to learn in L2 as L1 has no true tenses and concept of time is expressed by adverbs/implicit or contextual assumptions.
Difficulty distinguishing [r] & - Does anyone know why this is as I can't find a reason?!!
Prepositions such as 'on', 'in' & 'at' have one chinese translation in many contexts, 'zai' - may be confused resulting in phrases such as 'on Taiwan' instead of 'in Taiwan'.
Use of awkward gerunds e.g. 'no noising', excessive use of verbs ending in 'ing' e.g. 'do not climbing', confusion of 'ed' & 'ing' verbs e.g. 'i am bored' vs 'i am boring' --- all of these errors occur because verbs are not conjugated in chinese, for tense or pronoun.
No equivalent word for 'the' so may be used excessively when not needed e.g. 'The China' or missed out when needed. May also be confused with 'a'/'an'.
Confusion over countable and uncountable nouns, use of 'how much?' vs 'how many?' - leads to phrases such as 'I want a soup' & 'a lot of shoe'. This is due to there not being plurals in chinese - no inflections.

Switching between 'he' & 'she' - Does anyone know why this is?

If anyone can think of anymore it would be greatly appreciated or if anyone knows the answers to my questions about gender switching and distinguishing [r] & this would also help a lot!!

Thank you in advance.

Shannon

Subject verb agreement

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 04:55:38 GMT

Please kindly indicate the correct answers for the following questions and justifications to the answers.

1. They do these things so quietly that nobody is ever sure of what (is/ are) happening.

2. Various kinds of food (has /have) been already been prepared. Come and help yourself to (it/them).

I suppose food is an uncountable noun, so i assume singular verb is appropriate. But i aint sure about the following pronoun.

Need the answers urgently. Thank you.

Awence

any in summary

New2grammar — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 17:52:45 GMT

I have gone through a lot of the old posts on the topic any. This is my understanding of any usage.

Any can be followed by a plural/uncountable/singular noun.

1. When any is used in interogative or negative form, it is usually followed by a plural/uncountable noun. Does it mean that the verb always agrees with the plural/uncountable noun if the noun is also a subject?

For example,

Do you have any kids that are older than 9 years old?

There aren't any good options.

Exceptional case.

He is amazed that there isn't any sales tax in MN.

There isn't any widely used password checker out there which has the ...

2. When it is used in declarative form, it is usually followed by a singular noun.

Any idea is a good idea => the verb agrees with the singular noun idea.

Exceptional case.

If you have any comments, please e-mail them to me. => the pronoun agrees with the plural noun comment

Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks

Re: Is this a good basic explanation of the pronouns 'one'?

Inchoateknowledge — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 06:51:38 GMT

use one to refer back to countable noun antecedents.

Re: it and never they

Clive — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 20:04:41 GMT

Hi guys,

I have three uncountables with possessives or "look-to-be" quantifiers. Should they all be referred with the pronoun "it"?

1) their furniture

'Furniture' is not a countable noun. Say 'Your furniture is very nice. I like it'. It's the same, for example, as talking about 'their money'.

Individually, we often speak of 'a piece of furniture' or 'an item of furniture'.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: which word would you use

Clive — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:27:35 GMT

Hi,

She needs less/fewer/little reminders to clean her room.(less or fewer) 'fewer' with a countable noun

....work with in/within/ a group.(within) 'within'. 'with in' is not grammatical

He writes his notes down/down on the page.(I think both) 'down' means 'writing in a direction from top to bottom'. 'down on' means writing on the page.

She does not underst terms of direction/terms of directions in relation to maps.(terms of direction) 'terms of direction'. It's the 'terms' she doesn't understand.

She continues to work along side him.(what does "along side" mean?) It's one word, not two. It means 'close to the side of'.

Could you please correct the following sentence?

To stop himself from engaging in rough play with his friends, my cousin and his friends use reminders and/or rederect their attention to another activity

'To stop himself from engaging in rough play with his friends, my cousin uses reminders with his friends or redirects their attention to another activity'.

As there's a reflexive pronoun, only the cousin should be the subject of the sentence. Semantically, it still sounds a little odd. To stop himself from doing something, he reminds his friends ....? How does that work?

Best wishes, Clive

Re: How would you rephrase this?

Believer — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 06:28:53 GMT

Hi,

Knowing the word English is an uncountable noun, is not it awkward to use the pronoun "it" for it?

It is getting better.

Re: why not need for "the"

Murasaki — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 23:43:58 GMT

You could use 'the' as in

They are the names of towns in the area

however there's no need. Names is a countable noun used in the plural form so it is not necessary to have a determiner , such as the definite article, preceding it and from the context (sorry you didn't provide the whole text) the pronoun They already connects the names by referring back to them so we know which names the writer/speaker means.

Hope this helps

Re: Grammatical questions

MrPedantic — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 00:12:45 GMT

Hello Guest

Since this is for an exam, I don't feel I should give detailed replies. But you may wish to consider:

1. Why the following sentences are ungrammatical:

a) Never watch I television.
b) Which programmes watched you?

Look up Inversion in your grammar book.

a) Would you like an information?
b) He hasn't read much book.

Look up Count Nouns and Uncountable Nouns.

2. What is the grammatical difference between forms such as "my" and "mine", or "their" and "theirs"?

Look up Possessive Determiners and Possessive Pronouns.

3. How might the following contrast be accounted for?
a) They have referred to the book. c) He went to the station.
b) The book has been referred to. d) The station was gone to.

Look up Present Perfect Tense, Past Perfect Tense.

4. How can the contrast between c) and f) be explained?
a) She spoke to the manager. d) She put on a coat.
b) Who did she speak to? e) What did she put on?
c) To whom did she speak? f) On what did she put?

Look up Interrogative Pronouns.

Why not work on these ones first, and post your suggestions, after looking up the relevant sections? If you're still having trouble, we'll then give you more help, and go on to your other questions.

MrP