Search results for 'tag:Noun phrases tag:British English' matching tags 'Noun phrases' and 'British English'

Re: One - When is it not ok?

CalifJim — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:39:54 GMT

Recall that * means ungrammatical.

_____

one is always countable.

*coarse sand and fine one; *white sugar and brown one; *fresh milk and spoiled one; *British English and American one; *good knowledge and bad one

But (countable):

a happy child and a sad one; happy children and sad ones; the happy child and the sad one; the happy children and the sad ones

a big shoe and a small one; big shoes and small ones; the big shoe and the small one; the big shoes and the small ones

_____

The indefinite determiner a, a possessive construction, or an adjective of quantity cannot be followed directly by one; however, an adjective may intervene.

this old one, this one, that new one, that one, the fast one, the warm one, the one, a gold one, *a one, my old one, *my one, Tom's old one, *Tom's one, many new ones, *many ones, several good ones, *several ones, three short ones, *three ones

(these ones, those ones in some varieties of English; *these ones, *those ones in others.)

_____

With an adjective modifier:

the tall statue and the short one

Father's big shoes and Mother's small ones

the English teacher and the French one

-- The teacher from England and the one from France

With an adjunct:

a book with red trim and (*a) one with blue trim

the chair in the living room and the one in the kitchen

the coat that Lucy bought and the one that she stole

With a noun modifier:

*the clothing store and the hardware one

*a science book and a Latin one

*Father's work shoes and Mother's dress ones

*the chemistry teacher and the physics one

*an elm tree and a maple one

*Kluckin'-Fresh eggs and Lay-Rite ones

*the English teacher and the French one.

-- *the teacher of English and the one of French.

With a complement:

*a way of speaking and one of singing

*the Indian form of English and the Latin American one of Spanish

*a good knowledge of linguistics and a passing one of philosophy

_____

I have used "and" to connect noun phrases above only for purposes of illustration. The grammaticality of these expressions remains the same even within other structures within sentences, for example,

The tall statue was more beautiful than the short one.

*We planted an elm tree, but not a maple one.

*They shopped at the clothing store in the morning and at the hardware one that afternoon.

Re: not / neither / nor

Yoong Liat — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:50:30 GMT

Hi Avangi

This is what I posted earlier in the same thread: To my ear, "I'm not a native or a teacher" is better than "I'm not a native nor a teacher." ( I remember reading that the latter is also correct. )

Your sentence: I'm not a native, nor am I a teacher. Below is the reply from a British English native speaker.

1. "Or" is more common than "nor" when a noun phrase, adjective phrase, or adverb phrase is introduced by "not".

He is not a philosopher or a statesman. They were not rich or happy.

2. The sentence I'm not a native, nor am I a teacher is correct.

That's all the information I have for you.

I think it would be even better to hear from our forum's native English speaker member/s.

Best wishes.

Re: Phrases (Appositives and Participial)

camilus — Sat, 27 Mar 2004 16:20:56 GMT

Mirapence, your help is just priceless!!! I'm really sorry for having given you so much labour; I defiinitely overdid. I am, however, very thankful for your explanation. After this "injection of knowledge" you gave me, I decided go on phrases and hope to get through them with your help.

I Phrases Classification

Last night I put my shoulder to the wheel and studied those phrases deeply. After some analysis I finally arrived at some conclusions; nonetheless, I'm conscious of the fact that what you find below is nothing but a pile of rubbish. Could you please comment on that then?

As far as I know phrases classification depends on how we treat them. If we take phrases as the group of releated words that lack both subject and predicate, accordingly, during our classification Noun and Verb Phrases shall not be taken into account.

Taking the heed of all pros and cons I came to the following classifications:

1. Phrase hasn't got both subject and verb

a) Participial Phrase
b) Preopsitional Phrase (included Adverb and Adjective Phrases)
c) Gerund Phrase
d) Appositive Phrase

2. Phrase has got subject, but it lacks verb

a) Participial Phrase
b) Preopsitional Phrase (included Adverb and Adjective Phrases)
c) Gerund Phrase
d) Appositive Phrase
e) Noun Phrase

3. Phrase has got verb, but it lacks subject

a) Participial Phrase
b) Preopsitional Phrase (included Adverb and Adjective Phrases)
c) Gerund Phrase
d) Appositive Phrase
e) Verb Phrase
f) Infinitive Phrase

I've also found something called Absolute Phrase, but I don't know yet how it works. Please bear with me, but as to what you wrote Gerund Phrase may act as a Noun Phrase, right?

II Others

Mirapence, I see you're a man who knows: what, where, when, and how. Could you give me a list of books that you consider to be helpful and essential to prepare for CAE/CPE exams. Publications regarding English grammar; English speaking country culture, history, politics; and things like phrases and clauses would also be welcomed.

Thank you very much in advance.
Best regards

P.S. "Footballer" is a British English word for soccer or football player. Since football isn't popular sport in the USA (from which you're descended), this may sound strange to you. If you find that I gave too much to explain, don't exert yourself and answer some things later or divide in a way comfortable for you.