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

Re: in quotation marks

Clive — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:09:54 GMT

Hi,

Should I treat what is in a pair of quotation marks just like an adjective without any difference in terms of whether to place an article or not? Yes.

I feel like you have to have an article, 'a' or 'the' or 'an', before a quoted content acting as an adjective for a singular noun. With a singular countable noun, yes, you need some kind of determiner.

... reveals an aspect of 'pali-pali' Korean culture. This is fine.

-- The 'culture' is an uncountable, I think. Yes.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Denoting Past possibility : "Could be" or "could have been"

Sabyakgp — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:17:13 GMT

Grammar Geek,

You are right, voyage is a countable noun so requires a determiner. Also, I am sorry for the typo "dengerous".

Best Regards,
Sabya

Re: there is not/ there is no

Lcchang — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:50:27 GMT

CalifJim wrote:
difference is a countable noun. Countable nouns in the singular require a determiner. no is a determiner. not is not a determiner. not negates the verb.

So you can have the positive statement There is with the determiner no and noun the difference.
Or you can have the negative statement There is not with the determiner any and noun difference.

But you can't have the negative There is not and then add difference without a determiner.

CJ

Thank you CJ. I love your answer the best. Thanks to others too.

LCChang

Re: what could come after a preposition?

CalifJim — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:27:38 GMT

The only thing that can come after a preposition to form a prepositional phrase is a noun phrase, usually a noun accompanied by its preceding determiner and perhaps an adjective. A relative clause may be added. The noun itself may be a gerund.

If the element after the candidate for a preposition looks like it's not a noun, then either of these holds:

a. The preposition candidate is not a preposition, but perhaps an adverb or conjunction.
b. The structure after the preposition candidate actually is a noun phrase.

Both of your examples are in the category labeled b.

In your first example bad should be viewed as an adjective used as a noun, 'promoted' to a noun because of the elision of situation or its equivalent, one.

The situation can be seen as a bad situation.
The situation can be seen as a bad one.

In your second example, bad and good are simply abstract uncountable nouns meaning that which is bad and that which is good, respectively.

CJ

Re: there is not/ there is no

CalifJim — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:10:19 GMT

difference is a countable noun. Countable nouns in the singular require a determiner. no is a determiner. not is not a determiner. not negates the verb.

So you can have the positive statement There is with the determiner no and noun the difference.
Or you can have the negative statement There is not with the determiner any and noun difference.

But you can't have the negative There is not and then add difference without a determiner.

CJ

Re: Beauty and the beast... why "the" before "beast" only?

CalifJim — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:30:18 GMT

Beauty is ambiguous. It's both a proper noun, and thus the name of a person, and an abstract noun referring to the property of being beautiful. The most usual meaning of the beauty is the beautiful woman.

the beast is that particular beast that the story is about, not just any beast, i.e., not just a beast. Beast is capitalized because it's part of a title.

So you could have "The Beauty and the Beast", but not "Beauty and Beast", because beast is a countable noun in the singular. Such nouns must have a determiner.

You could also have "A Beauty and a Beast", but then you can ask "Which beautiful woman? Which beast?", and you'd have to read the story to find out, of course.

The difference is not a large one, and the choice of "Beauty and the Beast" is pretty much arbitrary.

CJ

Re: You only shot a single dear.

CalifJim — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:17:39 GMT

deer.

Singular countable nouns in English must have a determiner.
single is an adjective, not a determiner.
It has nothing to do with meaning. That is, just because an adjective means the same thing or something similar to the determiner does not mean you can leave out the determiner.

CJ

Re: ï¼´ï½ï½ï½ãï½ï½ãï¼®ï¼¯ãï½ï½ï½ï½ãï½ï½ï½ï½

Clive — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 06:17:33 GMT

Hi,

Please look the sentence "This is NO easy task". What part of speech is "NO" in the sentence? My English-Japanese dictionaries say this NO is an Adjective because it modifies and negates the phrase "easy task". But I understand that "task" is a Countable Noun and if I am right, I think we maybe need to put some determiner before "no (Adj) + easy (Adj) + task (countable N)". So I think this "NO" is rather a kind of negative article (or determiner) that is equivalent to the German "KEIN". Am I right?

I can't compare to the German language. However, I would agree that 'no' is a determiner here.

We also say things like

Tom is no honest man.

No excuse(s) will be accepted.

No man is an island.

No bus stops on Main Street.

Best wishes, Clive

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Anonymous — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 05:38:17 GMT

Hello

I'm an English learner from Japan and I have a question.

Please look the sentence "This is NO easy task". What part of speech is "NO" in the sentence? My English-Japanese dictionaries say this NO is an Adjective because it modifies and negates the phrase "easy task". But I understand that "task" is a Countable Noun and if I am right, I think we maybe need to put some determiner before "no (Adj) + easy (Adj) + task (countable N)". So I think this "NO" is rather a kind of negative article (or determiner) that is equivalent to the German "KEIN". Am I right?

Thank you in advance

Re: software name?

Clive — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 02:50:05 GMT

Hi,

1. How do you decide on how to put English articles in front of (software game??) names like Playstation 3? Do you have to make a decision as to whether it is used as a software or used a game first? Maybe, the rule is if used as a game, put the article in; whereas, if it is used as a sacred name of a particular type of software that is being enjoyed by youngster all over the world? Can you make some sort of connection to the rules that apply to some proper names?

as fun as the Playstation 3

I think that Playstation 3 is actually a piece of equipment that you buy with some software already installed. Isn't that true? So, it's a thing.

If I am speaking generally of the product, I would say 'Sony had great success last year with Playstation 3'. But if I am speaking individually, I'd say 'Today I bought a Playstation 3 for my son'.

Please note also that software is not a countable noun. You say things like 'I bought some software'. If you want to talk about some particular kind of software, you would typically say something like 'I bought a piece of software' or 'I bought a software package'.

2. When you have a possessive placed in front of a noun, does that 'possessiveness' overrides all determiners including determiners for superatives?

She is Korea's most beautiful woman.

Normally, you would write like this if the underlined possessive is not used:

She is the most beatitul woman in Korea.

So, an argument can be made that these sorts of possessives can override all determiners. Can it? I think so, although I don't like to make very general statements. I don't see it as just related to superlatives. eg

Seoul is the capital of South Korea. Seoul is South Korea's capital.

Best wishes, Clive

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

Re: in quotation marks

Re: Denoting Past possibility : "Could be" or "could have been"

Re: there is not/ there is no

Re: what could come after a preposition?

Re: there is not/ there is no

Re: Beauty and the beast... why "the" before "beast" only?

Re: You only shot a single dear.

Re: ï¼´ï½ï½ï½ãï½ï½ãï¼®ï¼¯ãï½ ï½ï½ï½ãï½ï½ï½ï½

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Re: software name?

Re: ï¼´ï½ï½ï½ãï½ï½ãï¼®ï¼¯ãï½ï½ï½ï½ãï½ï½ï½ï½

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