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grammar doubt

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Source: — Sentence Correction |
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by patanjali.purpose » Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:18 am
abhishek07sep wrote:neandarthals had a vocal tract...


or


neandarthals had vocal tracts..


ARE BOTH SENTENCES CORRECT IN BOTH PAIRS?

CATS HAVE A NOSE... OR CATS HAVE NOSES....[/u]
IMO, in both cases FIRST one is correct

A cat can have only one nose; CATS signifies a species of cat (not multiple number of cats) - same applies for neandarthals
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by abhishek07sep » Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:25 am
hmm, how about something like this...


they had a pen...((when each of them has a pen))
they had pens..


now we are talking about more than one person..
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by patanjali.purpose » Sat Jul 14, 2012 12:40 pm
abhishek07sep wrote:hmm, how about something like this...


they had a pen...((when each of them has a pen))
they had pens..now we are talking about more than one person..
when each of them has a pen, then we will say "each of them has a pen."

They had a pen = a group of people collectively owned A PEN

Note the context of CATS HAVE A NOSE is different from that of THEY HAD A PEN". In the first, we are talking about a SPECIES - A FEATURE THAT IS common for the entire species, but in the second, we are talking about THEY in general (not a common ,or I should say, a natural feature of the all people in THEY).
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