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Which +plural nouns ...? or Which +singular nouns....?

 
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Marrion



Joined: 02 Dec 2005
Posts: 303
Location: KOREA

PostPosted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:35 am    Post subject: Which +plural nouns ...? or Which +singular nouns....? Reply with quote

[1] Which top do you like better, the Korean top or the American top?
[2] Which tops do you like better, the Korean tops or the American tops?

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In both of these sentences, which one is correct?

I want to know whether "which" is used with "plural nouns".
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Jintii



Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Posts: 111
Location: New York City

PostPosted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:52 am    Post subject: Re: Which +plural nouns ...? or Which +singular nouns....? Reply with quote

You can use which with both singular and plural nouns. So, both of your sentences are correct, but they have different meanings.

Marrion wrote:
[1] Which top do you like better, the Korean top or the American top?

This means that there is one Korean top and one American top, and I am supposed to choose the one that I like better.

Marrion wrote:
[2] Which tops do you like better, the Korean tops or the American tops?

This means that there are two or more Korean tops and two or more American tops, and I should choose either the Korean ones or the American ones.

A third possibility is that you are asking me to choose whether I like Korean tops or American tops in general (not any specific tops in particular). In this case, you would not use an article:

Which tops do you like better, Korean (tops) or American (tops)?
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Marrion



Joined: 02 Dec 2005
Posts: 303
Location: KOREA

PostPosted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 7:05 pm    Post subject: I got it. Reply with quote

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