- Home
- Member
- straightforward
- straightforward's entries
- The Singular, The Plural Or Uncountable?
The Singular, The Plural Or Uncountable?
- 693
- 16
- 3
When I write an email or a journal in English, it's still tricky for me to choose a noun as the singular or the plural or uncountable.
For example, "joy" can be countable and uncountable:
The followings are uncountable examples. All sentences are quoted from my dictionally.
"I wish you joy of your success."
"He danced for joy at the news."
The followings are countable.
"I shared joys with my family."
I take for granted that a person who wrote this sentence has many joyful happenings or events with his or her family.
"His children were a great joy to him."
In this case, I surmise the birth or the existence of his children was a great joy to him.
I wrote the following sentence in my last entry.
"Thinking and writing in English have brought an unexpected joy into my life."
I was advised to omit "an". That makes sense because my joy isn't only one.
I have a question.
In this case, I can say either "unexpected joy" or "unexpected joys"??
For example, "joy" can be countable and uncountable:
The followings are uncountable examples. All sentences are quoted from my dictionally.
"I wish you joy of your success."
"He danced for joy at the news."
The followings are countable.
"I shared joys with my family."
I take for granted that a person who wrote this sentence has many joyful happenings or events with his or her family.
"His children were a great joy to him."
In this case, I surmise the birth or the existence of his children was a great joy to him.
I wrote the following sentence in my last entry.
"Thinking and writing in English have brought an unexpected joy into my life."
I was advised to omit "an". That makes sense because my joy isn't only one.
I have a question.
In this case, I can say either "unexpected joy" or "unexpected joys"??
Latest entries
Entries by Month
For example, "joy" can be countable and or uncountable:
All sentences are quoted from my dictionary.
"I wish you joy of on your success."This is not a very good sentence...
The followings are countable.
I take for granted that a the person who wrote this sentence has many joyful happenings or events with his or her family.
In this case, I surmise the birth or the existence of his children was a great joy to him. It can also mean that his children brought him joy continually, not just their birth. Even as they grew up they continued to bring joy into his life.
"Thinking and writing in English have brought an unexpected joy into my life." The experience of speaking and writing in English are unexpectedly joyous to you. You find pleasure in speaking and writing in English.
"Thinking and writing in English have brought unexpected joy into my life." Being able to think and write in English and/or the experience of thinking and writing in English bring you joy in your life.
"Thinking and writing in English have brought unexpected joys into my life." Being able to think and write in English and/or the experience of thinking and writing in English has brought multiple joys into you life. For example, if you find it applied to many different situations and there are many moments in time where you are linking joy specifically to it.
Anyhow, all three sentences make perfect sense.
While writing this, I'm not quite sure corrections (plural?) explanations(plural?)
It's quite a long way to go.... Anyway thanks again.
"I hope your success brings you joy."
You have a son, and you are proud of him?
The followings following examples are uncountable: examples.
The followings following examples are countable:
I was advised to omit "an". *You can use "an" but if you do then you should probably give an example of something else that is giving you joy or perhaps a reason why English doesn't always give you joy. Using "an" gives the listener the impression that you want to say something else about this subject. Otherwise it sounds better if you omit it.
In this case, I can say either "unexpected joy" or "unexpected joys"?? *You want to say "unexpected joy". "Joy" is almost always written in singular form and rarely as "joys". If you want to say "joys" it is probably better to say something like "much joy" or "lots of joy" instead.
今、復習ノートに忘れないようにメモしました。
I appreciate your help. I'm learning new grammar and new phrases everyday.
I'm not sure why it was corrected otherwise. But the above is 100% correct and natural.
So I should say, "Thanks a billion!" (Please don't correct this expression. ^^)