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grammardummy
Joined: 07 Jul 2006
Posts: 2
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 Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:01 am Post subject: when to use s |
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Please help me with sentences. What's the differnece.
She is a 22 year old woman.
She is 22 years old.
I am 22 years old.
They are 22 year old women.
Why do I use the s..... |
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Mary W. Ng
Joined: 26 Jun 2006
Posts: 261
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| Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:28 pm Post subject: Re: when to use s |
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| Quote: |
| She is a 22 year old woman. |
When a compound adjective is used before a noun, it is hyphenated. You need to hyphenate 22 year old so that the sentence reads: She is a 22-year-old woman.
| Quote: |
She is 22 years old.
I am 22 years old.
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You need the s because years is a plural noun.
| Quote: |
| They are 22 year old women. |
This sentence is similar to the first sentence; the sentence should read: They are 22-year-old women.
I hope this helps.
_________________
Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com |
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grammardummy
Joined: 07 Jul 2006
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 3:19 pm Post subject: I'm still confused |
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| I don't want to know about hyphenation I want to know why year is used in some sentences and why years is used in others. |
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flying_pig319
Joined: 01 Jul 2006
Posts: 369
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| Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 3:30 pm Post subject: Re: when to use s |
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| grammardummy wrote: |
Please help me with sentences. What's the differnece.
She is a 22 year old woman.
She is 22 years old.
I am 22 years old.
They are 22 year old women.
Why do I use the s..... |
I'm not an ESL teacher, but here's my understanding of it:
In the first example, "22-year-old woman" is acting as a noun (that's why you can say "a 22-year-old woman". This is a special case, which is why it doesn't need an "s".
In the second and third examples, you need the "s" because these are normal cases, and "22 years old" is an adjective. Yeah?
If you don't want to bother with figuring out whether it's a noun or adjective, you can tell by whether or not there's an "a" before the number of years (like in the first example). An "a" means no "s".
This is just my take on this--
someone correct me if I'm wrong  [/b] |
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Mary W. Ng
Joined: 26 Jun 2006
Posts: 261
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| Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 3:53 pm Post subject: Re: I'm still confused |
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Knowing when to hypenate is important because one does not hypenate plural nouns.
_________________
Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com |
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LucentShade
Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Posts: 542
Location: Nebraska, USA
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| Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 4:46 am Post subject: Re: I'm still confused |
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| grammardummy wrote: |
| I don't want to know about hyphenation I want to know why year is used in some sentences and why years is used in others. I'm going to whine and complain when people spend their free time on the Internet answering my questions. |
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asterix
Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 1654
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| Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:14 am Post subject: |
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| She's told you, Grammar Dummy. |
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Jintii
Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Posts: 111
Location: New York City
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| Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:00 pm Post subject: Re: when to use s |
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| When a phrase like 22-year-old comes before a noun, it is acting as an compound adjective. Adjectives never take -s endings. That's why year doesn't have an -s on the end when you say a 22-year-old woman. |
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