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waggo
Joined: 18 May 2003
Location: pusan baby!
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 Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:56 pm Post subject: Re: English Grammar Question: My Favorite... |
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[quote="ladyandthetramp"]I'm teaching "What's your favorite___?" and "My favorite ___ is ___" this week, but the second part always sounds a little strange.
With non-count nouns, there is no problem (my favorite vegetable is corn).
With count nouns, sometimes the plural sounds better, and sometimes the singular sounds better:
"My favorite fruit is apples" sound okay, but "My favorite fruit is an apple" seems to limit it to one apple.
but,
"My favorite pet is dogs" sounds strange. "My favorite pet is a dog" sounds better to me.
The reason why your dog examples sound strange is because you are mixing up the singular and plural forms in the same sentence.
The reason why your apple example sounds like you are limiting it to one apple is because you are doing just that.Use 'the' instead which assumes the concept of a fruit called 'an apple' already existing. |
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MixtecaMike
Joined: 24 Nov 2003
Location: 3rd Largest Train Station in Korea
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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| ladyandthetramp wrote: |
Did you read the original post?
You did not include any non-count nouns in your examples. Please reread the original post, think, and then respond.
Also, since when to native English speakers add "teacher" to the end of names?  |
My favorite up-tight poster on Daves is ... |
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MixtecaMike
Joined: 24 Nov 2003
Location: 3rd Largest Train Station in Korea
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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But if you want an answer, pdxsteve already gave you one.
Apples are my favorite fruit.
Dogs are my favorite pets, specially with barbeque sauce.
And I can't help it if I'm their favorite teacher, LOL. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:38 am Post subject: Re: English Grammar Question: My Favorite... |
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| pdxsteve wrote: |
I'm not sure what the best way to teach this is. What do others think about this?
Why not flip the sentences around?
"Apples are my favorite fruit".
"Dogs are my favorite pet".
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This is an excellent solution.
| pdxsteve wrote: |
I know it's not the traditional S-V-O sentence order that we try to teach our students, but it sounds much better to the ear (at least, to mine). |
I don't understand:
apples = subject
are = verb
my favourite fruit = object.
That's S-V-O isn't it? Do you know something I don't? |
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