The sentence
The sentence The sentence
‘Everyone’, ‘anyone’, etc. with singular or plural pronouns 1. We often use anyone to mean ‘it doesn’t matter who’, especially after if. The tradition rule is to use masculine pronouns with anyone, everyone, no one, etc., unless the context is definitely female (e.g. a girls’ school). According to this rule, you would address an audience of both sexes like this: If anyone wants to leave early, he can ask for permission. But you would address an audience of female like this: ‘If anyone wants to leave early, ‘the headmistress said, ‘she can ask for permission.’ 2. In practice, we use they, them, etc. without a plural meaning to refer to both sexes, though some native speakers think this is wrong: Instead of: Everyone knows what he has to do, doesn’t he? We say: Everyone knows what they have to do, don’t they? 28
Quantity A. Quantifiers + countable and uncountable nouns Quantifiers + countable and uncountable nouns Quantifiers are words like few, little, plenty of. They show how many things or how much of something we are talking about. Some quantifiers combine with countable nouns; some with uncountable and some with both kinds: A B C D + plural books + uncountable + plural countable + singular countable + uncountable both books a bit of bread some books each book some ink both a bit of some (of the) all (of) the (a) few a great deal of any (of the) any/some (of the) fewer a good deal of enough each the fewest (a) little a lot of/lots of either a/the majority of less hardly any every (not) many the least more/most (of the) most of the a minority of (not) much plenty of neither a number of/several no, none of the no, none of the Quantifiers that tell us roughly how much and how many 1. If we say I bought five magazines to read on the train, we are saying exactly how many. 2. If we say I bought some magazines to read on the train, we aren’t saying how many. 3. If we say I bought a few magazines to read on the train, we are giving ‘a rough idea’. Some quantity words like a few, a little give us ‘a rough idea’. If we arrange these on a scale, too much and too many are at the top of the scale and no is at the bottom. B. General and specific references to quantity ‘Of’ after quantifiers (‘a lot of’, ‘some of’, etc.) 1. We always use of with these quantifiers when we put them in front of a noun or pronoun, and the reference is general: a bit of, a couple of, a lot of, lots of, the majority of, a number of, plenty of: A lot of people don’t eat meat. (= a lot of people in general) 2. If we use words like the or my after of, the reference is specific: A lot of the people I know don’t eat meat. (= the ones I know) 3. We use quantifiers like some, any, much and many without of in general references: Some people don’t eat meat. (= some people in general) 4. If we use of + the, my etc., after some etc., the reference is specific: Some of the people I know don’t eat meat. (= the ones know) Note that None of is always specific: None of my friends is here. I want none of it. 29
- Page 1 and 2: The sentence A: Sentence word order
- Page 3 and 4: Verb + object + ‘to’ + noun or
- Page 5 and 6: Noun clause derived from questions
- Page 7 and 8: 3. In sentences like: Our new secre
- Page 9 and 10: Adverbial clauses of purpose with
- Page 11 and 12: t 2. We sometimes use the past part
- Page 13 and 14: Apostrophe s(‘s) or compound noun
- Page 15 and 16: E. Number (singular and plural) (1)
- Page 17 and 18: 3. We still have a few male and fem
- Page 19 and 20: Articles A. The indefinite article:
- Page 21 and 22: ‘The’ to refer to things that a
- Page 23 and 24: 2. Zero for: countries (Turkey), st
- Page 25 and 26: C. ‘It’ and ‘one/some/any/non
- Page 27: 2. Verbs such as get up, sit down,
- Page 31 and 32: ‘Not …any’, ‘no’ and ‘n
- Page 33 and 34: ‘None of’ and ‘neither of’
- Page 35 and 36: Adjectives A. Formation of adjectiv
- Page 37 and 38: D. Adjectives after ‘be’, ‘se
- Page 39 and 40: Adverbs A. Adverbs of manner Adverb
- Page 41 and 42: ‘During’, in’ and ‘for’ 1
- Page 43 and 44: F. Intensifiers ‘Very’, ‘too
- Page 45 and 46: 2. If we begin a sentence with a
- Page 47 and 48: B. Prepositions of movement and pos
- Page 49 and 50: D. Particular prepositions, particl
- Page 51 and 52: E. Particular prepositions, particl
- Page 53 and 54: d. Please put these dishes away. (a
- Page 55 and 56: 4. There are five groups of stative
- Page 57 and 58: 4. Repeated actions with e.g. alway
- Page 59 and 60: G. The simple future tense Some use
- Page 61 and 62: The future-in-the-past Sometimes we
- Page 63 and 64: Be, Have, Do A. ‘Be’ as a full
- Page 65 and 66: There are some children at the door
- Page 67 and 68: Compare: Have you/Do you have/Have
- Page 69 and 70: - present form: He must be right. H
- Page 71 and 72: 2. An ‘uncertain’ question may
- Page 73 and 74: 4. We may use the past perfect of b
- Page 75 and 76: 3. Had to shows that we couldn’t
- Page 77 and 78: The form of ‘dare’ as a modal a
‘Everyone’, ‘anyone’, etc. with singular or plural pronouns<br />
1. We often use anyone to mean ‘it doesn’t matter who’, especially after if.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tradition rule is to use masculine pronouns with anyone, everyone, no one, etc., unless<br />
the context is definitely female (e.g. a girls’ school).<br />
According to this rule, you would address an audience of both sexes like this:<br />
If anyone wants to leave early, he can ask for permission.<br />
But you would address an audience of female like this:<br />
‘If anyone wants to leave early, ‘the headmistress said, ‘she can ask for permission.’<br />
2. In practice, we use they, them, etc. without a plural meaning to refer to both sexes,<br />
though some native speakers think this is wrong:<br />
Instead of: Everyone knows what he has to do, doesn’t he?<br />
We say: Everyone knows what they have to do, don’t they?<br />
28