Search results for 'tag:Plural words tag:Nouns' matching tags 'Plural words' and 'Nouns'

Re: Apostrophe or not an apostrophe - that is the question.

igbruce — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:34:42 GMT

No. A 'thank you' is a colloquial compound noun, like lounge room or room heater, and the 's' in 'thank yous' signifies the plural, so no apostrophe is used.
Apostrophes are used to express possession e.g. Bob's car; or to indicate some letters have been omitted in a contracted word
e.g. 'can't' is a contracted form of 'cannot'. The only exception to the possessive use is with the pronoun 'it'. When 'it' owns something it is spelled 'its', written as 'it's' it is a contracted form of 'it is' e.g. It's raining in Sydney tonight. I think you are confusing what you have written as 'you's' with the slang term for plural 'you'. 'You' has the same form in singular and plural e.g. You have a nice smile; You all heard that; but some slang usages employ a separate word for the plural, usually written as 'youse'.You never say 'youse' unless you are in a gang or something where a slang dialect is used. It is not an accepted English word and signifies that the user comes from a social strata that is very low class or gang oriented.

Ian

Re: Has your college holidays on Saturdays?

Clive — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:21:50 GMT

Hi,
In the phrase 'college holidays', the word 'college' is a noun used as an adjective to modify the plural word 'holidays'.

This is often done, as you probably know. eg ' school uniforms', ' car keys'.

Clive

types

Believer — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:46:33 GMT

Hi,

I have not-so-easy times using the word 'types' in front of a countable noun and an uncountable noun.

There are two types of face: optimistic and pessimistic. -- I have difficulty with using the word 'types' with a countable noun. I think 'face' is used figuratively.

What do you think about these types of language. -- 'language' seems uncountable. Is it OK to use a plural word like 'types' in front of it? I feel like it has to be 'languages' since 'types' precedes it. Normally when we talk about types, I think an uncountable noun becomes countable.

Re: Kindly help me out

Clive — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:59:02 GMT

Hi again,

Kindly answer my questions

1. The annual earnings have been pegged at $3.86 billion. In the above sentence we are speaking about a annual so should it be the annual earnings has been pegged.. No, earnings is treated as a plural word. But then The annual is singular and verb needs to agree with subject kindly correct me if I am wrong. 'Annual' is an adjective, and thus has no effect on the verb.

3. The country is witnessing a sea change in the lifestyle, mindsets, aspirations and attitudes of its people. Is this correct? Yes, but I'd prefer the plural 'lifestyles'.

5. Everything about Crompton Greaves is (a) world class. (aticle should come or it can be omitted) You need to omit it. The phrase is used adjectivally. Kindly put some light or give me references for understanding how and when phrase to be used adjectivally. Consider that you can reword your example as 'Compton Greaves is a world-class person' or 'Compton Greaves has world-class skills'. In other words, If you can use the phrase to qualify a noun, it has an adjectival use.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Hopefully easy question on capitalization

Clive — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:57:22 GMT

Hi,

I am an attorney working for the government. The duties of my job position mostly involve considering legal requests called "petitions." My job title is "Petitions Attorney." I am unclear as to when the first letters in "Petitions Attorney" should be capitalized.

This is a matter of style and convention rather than of grammar. The usual convention is not to capitalize, unless it is in a context where you really want to stress that this is your job title.

eg I ask you what kind of work you do. Here, I don't really care about your official job title.

eg I am reading the employment section of your resume. I expect it to tell me the job titles for your previous periods of employment.

Finally, as a general comment, I would say that in modern English, writers try to avoid having a lot of capitals in a sentence. Except, of course, at the start of a sentence.

Are the following correct or incorrect? I wouldn't say they are wrong, but I don't think I'd capitalize.

I am a petitions attorney.

My coworkers include 10 other petitions attorneys.

Petitions attorneys are a type of attorney working for the federal government.

Petitions attorney John Smith has worked for the government for 10 years.

Five petitions attorneys were transferred from location X to location Y.

I look forward to learning the correct way to capitalize the words in the sentences above.

Are you sure your title uses the plural word 'petitions'? Usually, in such compound expressions, the first noun is singular.

eg We say 'car mechanic' but not 'cars mechanic', 'book seller' but not 'books seller'.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Singular & plural words

Yoong Liat — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 05:15:29 GMT

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

what is the plural word for THE??

some singular nouns that stand plural nouns too

Many thank Teresa

Pieanne has already replied as follows earlier.

"The" is the definite article, and has the same form in the plural:

The boy, the boys / the girl, the girls / the table, the tables.

You can say that there are six the's in the above sentence.

Re: Singular & plural words

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 03:33:23 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

what is the plural word for THE??

some singular nouns that stand plural nouns too

Many thank Teresa

genitive as a noun -- long question

Believer — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:29:26 GMT

Hi,

I think it has been noted in this forum that a genitive (I think it means a noun that has or is from a verbal root) can be (made it to be) a countable noun, possibly like this "a barking of a dog need not be heeded." Here, a barking can be said to be an instance of barking.

1. Why has the person who supposely has written the sentence "a barking of a dog need not be heeded" didn't write it as "A dog bark need not be heeded" or "A dog's barking need not be heeded" eventhough the last one is similar to the first and original one?

2. Why don't I see instances where the plural word "barkings" is used when "barking" can be used as a countable noun? Should I judge its relative acceptance and relative level of usage based on how many times and how frequently I encounter the word in my daily communicative situations (that is in written form as well as in verbal form?)

3, It is my presumption that not all genitives can be readily accepted as a noun, nor its plural form welcomed wholeheartly by some quarters of grammar (linguistic??) academians, but like a fad it can be accepted and be in fashion, so to speak, in due time or as the circumstances allow (like when many people start to use routinely); thus, it should be used circumspectively, being aware of the fact that the act of using a genitive isn't done often. Do you agree or is the logical base of my assumption shaky?

4. In the case of the "reading" in a phrase "a reading", should we resort to looking at the content of the (whole?) writing to determine whether it is being used as "an instance of reading" (that is the act or activity of reading) or a reading, which normally means "an event of reading in front of an audience"?

Note: I am trying to invite more confusion into the matter but to satisfy my curiosity on the matter.

I think this kind of thing can be said to apply similarly to the content in quotation marks. Can it also apply to a parenthetical content? If it can be applied to a parenthetical content, as well as a forementioned content in quotation marks and a genitive, then can you tell me how it can be done for the parenthetical content (I think when you say "a perenthetical content", you are making a reference to some content in parentheses like what I am using to write this parenthetical content)?

shared or discrete

Believer — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 08:53:14 GMT

Hi,

Sometimes I see phrasal cases where adjectives in front of a noun seem to warrant it to be plural but ends up being the case of shared adjectives. Is this one? Can you help me to clearly distinguish similar situations?

both singular and plural tense -- When should 'tense' be 'tenses'?

both countable and uncountable noun -- Can it be used to note a variable noun? Can it create confusion in the mind of someone who unfortunately is not in grasp of the notion of a variable noun (by having the singular word 'noun' rather than the plural word 'nouns'?

Re: Is this correct?

Clive — Tue, 29 May 2007 04:56:18 GMT

Hi,

Could you please explain that why there are no production data in June 10 & 20?

Could you please explain why there are/is no production data for June 10 & 20?

'Data' is a plural word, but it is often treated as a singlar noun.

Best wishes, Clive