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

flat as a noun in American English

Sanz — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:46:19 GMT

Please tell me if the word flat has a meaning as a noun in American English. I know that in British English means "apartment".

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.

One - When is it not ok?

Kooyeen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:36:47 GMT

Hi,
I think that sometimes the pronoun "one" is not ok for some reason, but...

Don't take the blue book, take the red one. <-- Ok. This is a normal sentence.
There is no reason why you should consider British English better than (the) American one. <-- Suspicious for several reasons, especially if you leave out "the". I would just repeat "English".

I was just trying to figure out when "one" does not sound good. Could it be that it's not used when it refers to an uncountable noun without an article of any kind?

It's better to have a general knowledge of this subject than a specific one. <-- This seems ok, but I am getting paranoid so I am not even sure anymore.
It's better to have good knowledge about few things than bad one about everything. <--- This is suspicious.

Can anyone come up with some advice? Can you think of any examples where "one" would sound odd as a pronoun? Thanks.

Re: 90% percent of the class is...

AlpheccaStars — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:42:21 GMT

In your sentence, I would use "is".

The usage note below is from the American Heritage dictionary: British English does vary from American English on the use of plurals with nouns representing groups of individuals.

Percent can take a singular or plural verb, depending on how the quantity being described is viewed. Very often what determines the form of the verb is the noun nearest to it. Thus one might say Eighty percent of the legislators are going to vote against the bill or Eighty percent of the legislature is set to vote the bill down. In the second sentence the group of legislators is considered as a body, not as individuals. When percent is used without a following prepositional phrase, either a singular or plural verb is acceptable.

Re: holding

AlpheccaStars — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:03:27 GMT

Hi Taka:

For the many nit-picking rules of grammar, it's best to check out a more authoritative site than just an informal discussion group.

For collective nouns, indeed, there is a divergence in British English and American English. They say that Brits and Americans are two peoples divided by a common language.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-grammar-collective-nouns.htm

Here is a quote from the site:

(In B.E.) Plural forms are common when the group is considered as a collection of people doing personal things like deciding, hoping or wanting; and in these cases we use who, not which, as a relative pronoun. Singular forms (with which as a relative pronoun) are more common when the group is seen as an impersonal unit.

In your example, the singular form should be used since the molecules were not acting individually; they united in a large network to form an effective blanket.

In A.E. the singular is considered to be correct.

So I still (tenaciously...) hold to my case. But who knows how the language will change in time?

Cheers,

A-Stars.

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: What is the difference between Advice and Advise ?

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:33:22 GMT

In British english "Advice" is the noun and "Advise" is the verb.

eg. Advice

>I don't need any advice from you, Naresh.
>The advice that Shyam gave Vidya was useless.

eg. Advise

> The teacher advised the students to take the day off.

>Kannan advised me to go to Mumbai and meet the client.

Re: British English pronounciation

thactoad — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:46:34 GMT

Pronunciation (note the spelling of the noun!! - but to pronounce) is not something you will find in a book but you need a native speaker to help you. I suggest you try to listen to English radio broadcasts (available on the internet) as you are probably not living in the UK.