A few days ago
sun

english grammar?

1) can u count the number of stars? or can u count the number of star? Which sentence is right?

I confused the noncount nouns. grammar book said that noncount noun do not have a plural form but dictionary show some noncount noun have a plural form.e.g we camped out under the stars.

i give the two real situation,

a)in the living room, i ask my son, can u count the number of stars in this picture ?or can u count the number of star in this picture? which sentence is right?

b)at outside, i ask my son, can u count the number of stars in the sky? or can u count the number of star in the sky? Which sentence is right?

2) which part of chicken do you like? or which parts of chicken do you like?Which sentence is right?

3) library has different type of book. or library has different types of books.Which sentence is right?

4)fruit stand sells a variety of fruit. or fruit stand sells a variety of fruits. Which sentence is right?

can u explain clearly reason & give example

Top 5 Answers
A few days ago
mittu90

Favorite Answer

1)Can you count the number of stars.

2)Both are correct depending on context. If you want to indicate a specific part of the chicken (i.e. a favorite part) then “which part of the chicken do you like?” is correct. If you allow for multiple answers then “which parts of the chicken do you like?” is correct.

3)The library has different types of books.

4) Both are correct although “the fruit stand sells a variety of fruits” sounds better to me.

You see, these nouns are both count and noncount nouns. This website clarifies the grammar for you:

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/nouns/online.htm

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A few days ago
Anonymous
1. Can you count the number of stars?

2. Which parts of chicken do you like?

3. The library has different types of books on sale.

4.The fruit stand sells a variety of fruits…I think…

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A few days ago
mitzy
a)in the living room, i ask my son, can u count the number of stars in this picture – right?

because there’s multiple stars

b)at outside, i ask my son, can u count the number of stars in the sky? right

same again – multiple stars

2) which part of chicken do you like? or which parts of chicken do you like?Which sentence is right?

both right – if you only like one part of chicken then first one correct

if you like multiple parts of chicken second correct

library has different types of books -right

multiple types of books

fruit stand sells a variety of fruits – right

multiple types of fruits

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A few days ago
Anonymous
You would count the number of stars. Almost all of your examples call for the plural (add the ‘s’) because they refer to more than one thing. (why would you count one star?)

The two that might call for singular is the chicken one (are you giving them one part or more than one part?) and the fruit one. Sometimes fruit can be plural. (i.e. “I like to eat fruit.) So grammatically either is correct, but used with the word “variety” I think “fruits” sounds better.

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A few days ago
pink
1 stars

…anytime there is more than one single something you can make it plural.

2 Which parts of chicken do you like?

3 Books

4 fruit ……….collectively it is ‘fruit’…such as saying ….

The salesman sold me differing varieties of fruit.

Fruits would be used like this:

Fruits that I love are nectarines, bananas, and apricots.

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