Grammar ...and stuff

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

BrownEyedBoy

Rock n' Roll Doggie
Joined
Jun 18, 2001
Messages
3,511
Location
San Pedro Sula, Honduras
I had to take this sufficiency test for an English 1 class in my university. (Yeah, I'm actually taking the class because I am lazy and I chose it as another elective; I'm not proud.)

So, anyway, one of the parts in the test asked you to say if one sentence was either Correct "C" or Incorrect "I"

As in:

Joe see the car go by. .........I

So this one sentence says:

How many days are in a week? ......(I wrote in: ) C

Isn't it correct to say "How many days are in a week?". My teacher insisted that it should be "How many days are there in a week?" but he still didn't mark it wrong and I still managed to get the 100%.

Still, I'm kind of intrigued, which way is it? :scratch:
 
I think both are correct. If I were writing, I'd omit 'there', but in natural speech, I think I'd slip 'there' in. Not sure why. :shrug:
 
Seriously, trust the ESL speakers. They are more likely to have been taught more recently the correct way to speak and write. Anyone born in an English speaking language country gets lazy very quick.

:der: Count the number of errors in my post alone. I can guess a few :lol:
 
bammo2 said:
I'd definitely say 'there'

it sounds very wrong to me without it

Same here. I would definitely say "there".

Think of the answer:

Would you say: "Seven days are in a week"
or
"There are seven days in a week."

In this case, "are there" is for the plural form of "there is", ("il y a" in French or "hay" in Spanish)

But then again, English is not my first language. It still sounds wrong without it, though :wink:
 
Let’s see, I’ll try to keep this as brief and to the point as I can. The answer is oversimplified (I hope my colleagues will forgive me).

Let’s say there are two perspectives to understand language. One has to do with the rules of what is considered to be good usage, and the other which has to do with the way we actually use language.

If you look at the sentence “How many days are in a week?” from the first perspective, you must say it is wrong. The rule goes that in English you must use an expletive “there” to express the existence of elements within a set, otherwise you would rather be making a description.

Now, if you take a look at the sentence from the second perspective, you must consider it correct. The clues as to why that is so can be found along this very thread. Most of your fellow interferfencers find nothing wrong in “How many days are in a week?” Most of them (probably all of them) are native speakers anf they would use this sentence naturally, understand what it means and move on to their U2 topic of choice.

Your teacher is so well informed that she explained the rule to you (because you have to know it) without penalizing you for making a choice most native speakers would consider adequate.

Wow, :blahblah:

I hope this answers your querstion, BrownEyedBoy. I'd give your teacher a few well deserved points.
 
Circe said:
Let’s see, I’ll try to keep this as brief and to the point as I can. The answer is oversimplified (I hope my colleagues will forgive me).

Let’s say there are two perspectives to understand language. One has to do with the rules of what is considered to be good usage, and the other which has to do with the way we actually use language.

If you look at the sentence “How many days are in a week?” from the first perspective, you must say it is wrong. The rule goes that in English you must use an expletive “there” to express the existence of elements within a set, otherwise you would rather be making a description.

Now, if you take a look at the sentence from the second perspective, you must consider it correct. The clues as to why that is so can be found along this very thread. Most of your fellow interferfencers find nothing wrong in “How many days are in a week?” Most of them (probably all of them) are native speakers anf they would use this sentence naturally, understand what it means and move on to their U2 topic of choice.

Your teacher is so well informed that she explained the rule to you (because you have to know it) without penalizing you for making a choice most native speakers would consider adequate.

Wow, :blahblah:

I hope this answers your querstion, BrownEyedBoy. I'd give your teacher a few well deserved points.

:shrug: I'm English, and still think that you should say 'there' in that sentence. If someone said the sentence without the word 'there', I would think that they were using bad English :shrug:
 
Well, sure. If you check your old grammar book you'll see that it says there must be a "there" in that sentence. One of the goals of traditional grammars is to prescribe how the language should be used. It enforces an idea of correction and linguistic preservationthat is frequently divergent from what people actually do with language without compromising comprehension. Obviously, from such a point of view, the sentence is incorrect.

However, BrownEyedBoy's teacher does take this sentence as a good one, and she may have done it because, in the end, although we enforce a "good" and "correct" use of the language, the truth is that language is not owned by teachers and grammarians, but by all people who use it. At least that's what I believe being a grammar teacher myself.
 
bammo2 said:


:shrug: I'm English, and still think that you should say 'there' in that sentence. If someone said the sentence without the word 'there', I would think that they were using bad English :shrug:

I agree. The first time I read that sentence I knew it wasn't right without the "there" in it. I would always put it in regardless of whether I was speaking or writing.
 
so, anyone figured out how many days there are in a week yet?


:scratch:
 
Back
Top Bottom