Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

Don't each much junk food or snacks.

Someone asked why "many" isn't before "snacks". Is that sentence OK as it is (with the intended meaning of not to eat too much of either), or would you take it to mean not to eat much junk food or any snacks?

Thanks.

[Zyzyfer]

Sounds a lot like the there is/there are case with lists. I don't know the technical explanation, but it's easy enough to show.

There is a TV, a bed, and some chairs in the room.
There are some chairs, a TV, and a bed in the room.

The verb defers to the first object. I imagine in your example that the same thing is happening, the quantifier is deferring to the first object.

If you need a technical term, good luck. I'm useless with them.

[koreatimes]

I don't see how the title of your thread pertains to the question you are asking.

Ellipsis - A three-dot symbol used to show an incomplete statement.

Anyway, for your sentence:

"Don't each much junk food or snacks."

If we were to change this, I would say "junk food" and "too many snacks". You don't need "much".

A snack in itself is not necessarily bad, but junk food implies it is bad by definition. I know there is gray area here, because Koreans often call kimbab junk food sometimes since they can get it at a convenience store. But in English, I don't use junk food to associate with healthy foods.

[raewon]

Thanks for the replies.

Zyzyfer: So would you say the original sentence is OK, with the intended
meaning I stated before?

koreatimes: Sorry about the confusion in the subject heading. I've
changed it.

[Zyzyfer]

[koreatimes]

[raewon]

I had "ellipses" in the original heading and changed it to "ellipsis."
According to Michael Swan (my hero and savior) that is the term for "leaving out words".

from Practical English Usage:

[schwa]

Don't eat much junk food or snacks.

Whether this is "wrong" or not, the ear rejects "much ... snacks." Rather than trying to justify a clumsy construction, a good writer would seek out a smoother alternative.

Compare: Don't eat a lot of junk food or snacks. Problem solved.

[duke of new york]

[koreatimes]

[raewon]

Sorry about that.

Don't each much junk food or (many) snacks.

Ellipsis after the conjunction or (delete many)
= Don't each much junk food or snacks.

So I thought that sentence might be OK because 'many' would be
more or less understood.

Have a good weekend.

[koreatimes]

Are you saying this:

"Don't eat much junk food...or snacks."

Why would anyone put "..." before "or"? What are the omitted words?

[duke of new york]

[koreatimes]

[duke of new york]

It doesn't need any punctuation like "..." to signify the ellipsis, if that's what you're asking. When you use "..." in a quotation, it signifies that something was omitted, right? That's why the punctuation is called an ellipsis. But there are other, less formal situations when the concept of ellipsis is used as a part of standard English, like what we have been talking about. It's not something we usually think about, but there are implied words that are omitted from the sentence. The difference is that in a quotation, you can't just omit or change something without acknowledging it, because they are someone else's words, so we use things like brackets and ellipsis markers (maybe that's a better term for the punctuation "..."). If you aren't quoting someone, there's no reason to signify with punctuation that you omitted something, as long as the meaning is clear.