Search results for 'tag:Uncountable nouns tag:Adverbs' matching tags 'Uncountable nouns' and 'Adverbs'

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

Re: Questions

Cool Breeze — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:09:26 GMT

May I use the 'ING' form with any verb to create adjectives or nouns? No.

The adjective 'Telephonic' has it an adverb to be 'Telephonically'? Yes.

When I can use 'The', 'a', 'an' before nouns? An extremely broad question. A and an are usually not used before uncountable nouns and plurals; the is possible with all nouns in the right context.

Re: Some questions

Belly — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:56:15 GMT

Spectacled-Girl wrote:
Belly wrote:

Oh, thanks. But how to correct my second sentence using "naturally"?

I know the function of whose here, but wonder why he use is, not are, and when to use skin as an uncount or count noun?

naturally [adverb]

1) as might be expected; 'naturally, the lawyer sent us a huge bill'

**2) according to nature; by natural means; without artifical help; 'naturally grown flowers'

''...whose skin is...''

Take note of the bolded word. It is given as skin, no 's', thus this means that there is only one skin which is a countable noun. Whenever there is a countable noun, we use is or was (depending on whether the context is present or past). And, whenever there is an uncountable noun, we use are or were because uncountable means 'cannot be counted' or we can put it simply as 'a lot' thus we cannot use 'is' or 'was'

I will give you one example:

--- There are hairs on the floor. [In this case, 'hairs' are an uncountable noun so we use 'are']

--- Look, there is a bird on the tree. [In here, 'bird' refer to one as there is no 's', thus this is a countable noun so we use 'is']

NOTE: It is 'countable' and 'uncountable'; not 'uncount' or 'count'.

Perhaps you didn't get my idea, so here it is:

They use "reptile:cold blooded animals that creep or crawl along the ground whose skin is", well, animals is a plural noun so I wondered why we use is here.

In my dictionary (Oxford), it says the word can be used as (do we need as or in here?) both uncount noun (uncount noun is a real word, as Oxford says). Here is what exactly it says about the first meaning of skin:

[U, C] the layer of tissue that covers the body:
to have dark / fair / olive, etc. skin Ã The snake sheds its skin once a year. Ã cosmetics for sensitive skins Ã skin cancer

Can you see [U,C] symbol? I don't know whether it indicates the word can be used in both way or it depends on the context meaning. If it depends on the context meaning, I wonder which meaning will fit each case. The definition here is too ambiguous, too vague indeed (Another question: Can we add indeed after too?)

Re: Some questions

Spectacled-Girl — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:26:41 GMT

Belly wrote:

Oh, thanks. But how to correct my second sentence using "naturally"?

I know the function of whose here, but wonder why he use is, not are, and when to use skin as an uncount or count noun?

naturally [adverb]

1) as might be expected; 'naturally, the lawyer sent us a huge bill'

**2) according to nature; by natural means; without artifical help; 'naturally grown flowers'

''...whose skin is...''

Take note of the bolded word. It is given as skin, no 's', thus this means that there is only one skin which is a countable noun. Whenever there is a countable noun, we use is or was (depending on whether the context is present or past). And, whenever there is an uncountable noun, we use are or were because uncountable means 'cannot be counted' or we can put it simply as 'a lot' thus we cannot use 'is' or 'was'

I will give you one example:

--- There are hairs on the floor. [In this case, 'hairs' are an uncountable noun so we use 'are']

--- Look, there is a bird on the tree. [In here, 'bird' refer to one as there is no 's', thus this is a countable noun so we use 'is']

NOTE: It is 'countable' and 'uncountable'; not 'uncount' or 'count'.

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: A doubt!

Clive — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:08:15 GMT

Hi,

Consider this sentence.

He has a very good knowledge.

What is the function of the aritcle 'a' in the sentence?
( I know that the articles can function as adjectives but never as adverbs..Well, the case here is different, isn't it?....Can an indefinite article modify an uncountable noun? )

Article use can be difficult to learn, and to explain, as you perhaps are aware. Let me offer a few comments.

We don't say 'He has a knowledge'

We do say 'He has a knowledge of French, but he does not have a knowledge of Russian or a knowledge of Chinese.' In this context, we are thinking of and speaking of several kinds of knowledge.

We don't do this with the plural , eg we don't say He has knowledges of Spanish and Japanese.

We wouldn't normally say the sentence you are offering as an example, because it does not specify a type of knowledge. However, we could readily say He has a very good knowledge of English.

Best wishes, Clive

A doubt!

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:43:02 GMT

Hi!

Consider this sentence.

He has a very good knowledge.

What is the function of the aricle 'a' in the sentence?
( I know that the articles can function as adjectives but never as adverbs..Well, the case here is different, isn't it?....Can an indefinite article modify an uncountable noun? )

I am quite confused!

Please help me out!!

Thanks for your time..

a little and little revisited

Believer — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 20:35:37 GMT

Hi,

Please check if my reasoning is correct.

a little and little are ususally used in front of uncountable nouns to signal the amount in possession and they respectively are coming from the positive polarity and negative polarity view points.

I have a little or little money -- Here, it is acting as a sort of quantifier, I think.

1. OK, but I think, this take on looking from the positive polarity view point and negative polarity view point fails somewhat when they are used as adverbs like this.

I speak English a little.

I think you can say, "I speak English little," but is awakward and sounds stilted??.

2. And that "polarity view point" thing?? also isn't applicable when they are used to modify adjectives, I think.

I am a little angry.

I think you cannot say "I am little angry."

3. And I think you can't use for this too.

He has been Treasurer for a little over four years.

Here, I think, you cannot say, "He has been Treasrer for little over four years."

Re: definition of adverb

Goodman — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 19:38:01 GMT

Siggy wrote:
Believer wrote:

In grammar, an adverb is a word such as 'slowly' or 'very' which adds information about time, place , or manner.

My questions is why aren't there any articles for the words "place" and "manner"?

I think the general answer is that in this sentence, the words time, place, and manner are being used as non-specific, uncountable nouns. When a noun is non-specific, it is being used to refer to something in general rather than particular: tiger is specific; manner is non-specific. When a noun is being used as uncountable, it means you can't say things like one manner, two manners, three manners, and so on.

The general rule is IF a noun is non-specific AND uncountable THEN there is no article.

Note: some nouns can exist as exist as specific and non-specific, as well as countable and non-countable. You have to determine in what sense the noun is being used.
Siggy

Echoing to Siggy's comment, I have a couple of examples to show just that.

The increasing costs of books, college tuition, food and transportation can put extra financial stress on parents. The red items are expressed in a general statement and thus require no article.

Pets, drinking, barefoot and unruly behavior are not allowed in this mall. Same reason.

If you have a dog, you can't enter the mall unless it's a guide dog . - In this sentence, an article "a" is needed.

Hope that helps.

Re: definition of adverb

Siggy — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:43:02 GMT

Believer wrote:
In grammar, an adverb is a word such as 'slowly' or 'very' which adds information about time, place , or manner.

My questions is why aren't there any articles for the words "place" and "manner"?

I think the general answer is that in this sentence, the words time, place, and manner are being used as non-specific, uncountable nouns. When a noun is non-specific, it is being used to refer to something in general rather than particular: tiger is specific; manner is non-specific. When a noun is being used as uncountable, it means you can't say things like one manner, two manners, three manners, and so on.

The general rule is IF a noun is non-specific AND uncountable THEN there is no article.

Note: some nouns can exist as exist as specific and non-specific, as well as countable and non-countable. You have to determine in what sense the noun is being used.

Siggy