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Rain
Joined: 06 Jul 2004
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 Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 10:04 pm Post subject: My favorite food is hamburgers. |
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| Is this sentence correct? It seems strange, but I cannot exactly say why. |
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JAMZ
Joined: 18 May 2004
Location: Ori Station, Bundang
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| Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 10:38 pm Post subject: |
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Shouldn't it read:
"My favourite food is Hamburger."
or
"My favourite food is a hamburger."
the first sentence if you use hamburger as a proper noun and the second if not? |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 10:54 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm not sure if there's anything gramatically wrong with it, but when Koreans say that, it sounds every bit as unnatural as "Fine thanks and you?" |
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FUBAR
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: The Y.C.
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| Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 11:44 pm Post subject: Re: My favorite food is hamburgers. |
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| Rain wrote: |
| Is this sentence correct? It seems strange, but I cannot exactly say why. |
I think it's correct. Maybe it sounds weird b/c it's not a sentence that we would use in common practice. |
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skindleshanks
Joined: 10 May 2004
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:12 am Post subject: |
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That sentence would be referring to the noncount hamburger, as in the bulk meat. For the sandwiches, I would suggest,
My favorite food is hamburgers.
This may seem wrong at first, but think about how you talk about your favorite snack:
My favorite snack is chips. (or popcorn, or butterfly larvae, etc)
The verb needs to agree with the subject, which is "food" (or, if you expanded it "kind of food.") |
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jazblanc77
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:22 am Post subject: |
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This was done earlier this year, I'm sure if you did a search you would find it.
Anyways, "My favourite food is hamburgers" has a problem with agreement. I am sure that it should be "My favourite food is the hamburger". |
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matthewwoodford
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Location, location, location.
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:22 am Post subject: |
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I'm sure lots of teachers have come up against this. I agree with the last poster that
'My favourite food is the hamburger' is correct.
Similarly, 'My favourite animal is the alligator'.
But, 'My favourite job is the teacher' is wrong and 'My favourite job is teaching' doesn't quite seem right either.
As I'm not sure I can explain why this is, particularly to a bunch of Korean kids, I tell them to say it like this:
'Hamburgers are my favourite food.' |
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Son Deureo!
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:24 am Post subject: |
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| jazblanc77 wrote: |
| I am sure that it should be "My favourite food is the hamburger". |
My cousin from Mars agrees with you.
Really now, when's the last time you said a sentence like this?
If only you'd listen to your inner native speaker, you'd know that
| Quote: |
| 'Hamburgers are my favourite food.' |
is a much more natural sounding sentence. |
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sonofthedarkstranger
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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I submit that that "my favorite food is hamburgers" is fine.
"Hamburgers are my favorite food" is of course fine too but you should be able to switch the two around.
I agree with the "listen to your inner native speaker" comment. "My favorite food is hamburgers" sounds fine.
"My favorite food are hamburgers" and "my favorite food is the hamburger" sound funny.
"My favorite food is hamburgers." No verb-subject disagreement there.
Why does it sound strange? Anything sounds strange if you repeat it or analyze it enough. |
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turtlepi1
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 2:46 am Post subject: |
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| jazblanc77 wrote: |
This was done earlier this year, I'm sure if you did a search you would find it.
Anyways, "My favourite food is hamburgers" has a problem with agreement. I am sure that it should be "My favourite food is the hamburger". |
Agreement is not a problem...
"' 'My favourite food' (Subject)" is "hamburgers (Object)"
(favourite food = singular=is)
Agreement is needed with the subject so "IS" is fine.
If this isn't true I sure hope someone will correct me...
and Hamburgers IS countable in this sentence...  (In regards to another response)
****Definitely not a grammar wizard so feel free to tell me I am wrong*** |
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jazblanc77
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:56 am Post subject: |
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| turtlepi1 wrote: |
(favourite food = singular=is)
Agreement is needed with the subject so "IS" is fine.
If this isn't true I sure hope someone will correct me...
and Hamburgers IS countable in this sentence... (In regards to another response)
****Definitely not a grammar wizard so feel free to tell me I am wrong*** |
If you're right and "hamburgers" is a countable noun then, to keep it in this format with the plural "hamburgers", the sentence should be changed to: "My favourite foods are hamburgers". Though, you can see automatically where the problem is with this, as it is clearly missing a supplementary noun. The agreement problem is between the words "food" and "hamburgers".
"[H]amburgers" is actually a macro-level noun which means that it is referencing a category, in general, of hamburgers which include cheese burgers, Whoppers, Mig Macs, bulgogi burgers, and the like. In general, this should make it alright to use it in the sense of "My favourite food is hamburgers",however, this creates confusion about whether it is a countable noun or a macro-level noun.
"My favourite food is ____", may only be used with singluar countable nouns or with non-count nouns. Though, in the case of foods, you can't say, "My favourite food is a banana.", obviously, so you have to use the macro-level designation of "the banana". With non-count nouns, it's easy: "My favourite food is rice", for example.
Hence, though it does not sound natural in spoken English, the sentence should come out as, "My favourite food is the hamburger", in proper English.
edited to correct the quotation fields |
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sonofthedarkstranger
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 10:46 am Post subject: |
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You may be right in the strictest techincal sense--I don't know--but I still feel that "my favorite food is the hamburger" sounds really, really weird.
Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.  |
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thorin
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:15 am Post subject: Re: My favorite food is hamburgers. |
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| Rain wrote: |
| Is this sentence correct? It seems strange, but I cannot exactly say why. |
hmm, my favorite food is pizza. |
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matthewwoodford
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Location, location, location.
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| Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 5:46 am Post subject: Re: My favorite food is hamburgers. |
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| thorin wrote: |
| Rain wrote: |
| Is this sentence correct? It seems strange, but I cannot exactly say why. |
hmm, my favorite food is pizza. |
That works fine with non-count nouns. |
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mack the knife
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: standing right behind you...
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| Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2004 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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I'll make this real easy for you.
Just have them answer "I like hamburgers. A lot." |
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