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Languages!

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by kabirmohammed » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:12 pm
IMO: C

... but those who have tried to cont(??) typically have found (tried to count what)
... but those who have tried counting it typically find

Plz correct me if iam wrong...
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by heshamelaziry » Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:45 pm
kabirmohammed wrote:IMO: C

... but those who have tried to cont(??) typically have found (tried to count what)
... but those who have tried counting it typically find

Plz correct me if iam wrong...

From previous posts I figuered that we all agreed that OA should be A, because it in C is singular while the subject of the verb is languages

C is wrong
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by mehravikas » Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:56 pm
Can you explain why is the usage of "them" incorrect please?

IMO - them can refer to sub-languages
Testluv wrote:Hrishi: Because the noun is "language", the pronoun that replaces it should be "it".

Hesham: you are right that the correct idiom is "between x AND y".
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by heshamelaziry » Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:17 pm
The sentence says that trying to count languages is difficult because within each language there are sub-languages that count as separate languages by themselves, then the sentence says that trying to count yields thousands of languages. So, counting many languages yields thousands of languages because of the sub-languages; how can we use it to count many languages and get thousands of languages.

This seems to be a straight forward, unless I am missing something.
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by Testluv » Thu Dec 24, 2009 1:52 pm
received a pm.

Vikas, in my view, it's not really about grammar here. Instead, it's about using your reasoning skills to ascertain the speaker's intended meaning:

The difficulty is in distinguishing between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within [the language].

In other words, it is hard to tell apart the language proper from the sub-languages or dialects that are contained in the language.

Thus, the pronoun in question (it/them) is intended to replace "language" which is singular. Thus, we need "it".
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by mehravikas » Thu Dec 24, 2009 2:05 pm
yeah got it now. I was confused because I thought there is a grammar rule as mentioned by Hrishi in this post.

Can you please refer to that and suggest if it is correct?
Testluv wrote:received a pm.

Vikas, in my view, it's not really about grammar here. Instead, it's about using your reasoning skills to ascertain the speaker's intended meaning:

The difficulty is in distinguishing between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within [the language].

In other words, it is hard to tell apart the language proper from the sub-languages or dialects that are contained in the language.

Thus, the pronoun in question (it/them) is intended to replace "language" which is singular. Thus, we need "it".
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by mehravikas » Thu Dec 24, 2009 2:43 pm
Which one do you think is correct. I have heard that :

if X(singular) and Y(plural) ----then following part should be plural

if X(plural) and Y(singular) ----then following part should be singular.

Looking from the above theory, the option "within them" should be considered.


Hrishi - The answer to the above question would be that when a compound subject consists of two distinct units joined by the conjunction and the verb must be plural.

I got a question in OG where the underlined portion was - few services and little water exists

The explanation given by OG was it should be plural exist.

I hope this clears your doubt
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by Testluv » Thu Dec 24, 2009 4:09 pm
mehravikas wrote:Which one do you think is correct. I have heard that :

if X(singular) and Y(plural) ----then following part should be plural

if X(plural) and Y(singular) ----then following part should be singular.

Looking from the above theory, the option "within them" should be considered.


Hrishi - The answer to the above question would be that when a compound subject consists of two distinct units joined by the conjunction and the verb must be plural.

I got a question in OG where the underlined portion was - few services and little water exists

The explanation given by OG was it should be plural exist.

I hope this clears your doubt
Yes, that's correct. If you have A and B, then it is a compound subject and requires a plural verb. But if you have A or B, then B determines whether the verb is singular or plural.

So, in this sentence:

"either the coach or the player was..."

But in this sentence:

"either the coach or the players were..."

And this rule for "or" also applies to "nor".
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