Some Issues With English

Some Issues With English

Version 19Aug13

See “Handbook of Technical Writing” by Brusaw, Alred and Oliu

Count nouns refer to things that can be counted such as tables, chairs, doctors, bottles.

Noncount nouns refer to things that cannot be counted such as electricity, oil, love, honor.

The plural of a count noun ends in s:  pencils, cats, raindrops.

Count nouns are preceded by an article (a, an, the).  “I found a pencil.”

Noncount nouns are not preceded by an article.  “I found love.”

The general rule is that every count noun must be preceded by an article (a, an, or the), a demonstrative adjective (this, that, these), a possessive adjective (my, her, their, and so on), or some expression of quantity (such as one, two, several, many, a few, a lot of, some, and no).

“I bought a pencil.  I bought this pencil.  He took my pencil. I’ll give him some punches.”

The article is directly in front of the noun ( I ate a cookie) or in front of the whole noun phrase ( I ate a warm, delicious cookie.)

A gerund is a verbal ending in –ing that is used as a noun.  “Walking is good for you.”

An infinitive is the bare form of the verb (go, run, fall).  An infinitive phrase consists of an infinitive (usually with to) and any modifiers.  “His goal is to become sales manager.”

Knowing which form to use is difficult – you must rely on what you read or what you hear native speakers use.

Examples:

Correct:  He enjoys working.

Incorrect:  He enjoys to work.

Correct:  The company expects to build the factory soon.

Incorrect:  The company expects building the factory soon.

Sometimes either form is correct:

Correct:  It began raining soon after we arrived.

Correct:  It began to rain soon after we arrived.

Use the present perfect verb tense when referring to events completed in the past, but at nonspecified times.  When a specific time is mentioned, use the simple past.

“I wrote the letter yesterday.”  (Simple past tense wrote.  The time when the action took place is mentioned.)

I have written the letter. (Present perfect tense have written.  No specific time is mentioned; it could have been yesterday, last week, or ten years ago.)