Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gqsupersport]

eg: That orange and apple looks so tasty.

I would have originally written "look so tasty". However one of my colleagues said that "looks" can be correct too as in they each look tasty individually (the orange looks tasty as well as the apple). Whereas "look" would be used as referring to them both.

Can either one work?

[alright26]

you are right. You are talking about the two things together so they are thus more than one object and you must use look.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I sometimes ask my freshmen which is correct: "My favorite hobby is drinking beer and chasing girls" or "My favorite hobbies are drinking beer and chasing girls." After they laugh, I explain that both are actually correct: the first treats both actions as part of one hobby, and the second treats them as separate.

Here, too, you could be possibly referring to some kind of orange/apple combination, i.e. that orange and apple fruit plate, in which case you can use "looks." But I think normally you would be talking about two distinct pieces of fruit forming a plural group, and so I would use "look."

I don't think you could use "looks" as your colleague suggests without changing the sentence-- "that orange looks tasty, and the apple does too."

[FMPJ]