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 Thu Jun 05, 2008 11:52 am Usage of much and many (How much rice do you want?) |
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The only one that's really wrong is, "How much french fries do you like?" French fries are countable, so it should be, "How many french fries would you like?" (not "do you like"). The answer would be "just a few".
You should also have written, "How much coffee WOULD you like?" All of those sentences with "do you like" should be changed to "would you like". |
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Jamie (K)
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| Thu Jun 05, 2008 15:30 pm Usage of much and many (How much rice do you want?) |
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| Thank you very much Jamie for the corrections. It is really confusing to me that french fries belongs to countable nouns. |
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alv
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| Thu Jun 05, 2008 18:02 pm Usage of much and many (How much rice do you want?) |
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| Quote: | | French fries are countable, so it should be..., |
Has the term "French fries" returned to your shores? |
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Molly
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| Thu Jun 05, 2008 18:07 pm Usage of much and many (How much rice do you want?) |
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| Molly wrote: | | Quote: | | French fries are countable, so it should be..., |
Has the term "French fries" returned to your shores? |
It never left. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Thu Jun 05, 2008 18:20 pm Usage of much and many (How much rice do you want?) |
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| Wasn't it usurped for a while? Y'know, when you got all upset with the French for not doing what you wanted to force them to do. |
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Molly
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| Thu Jun 05, 2008 18:22 pm Usage of much and many (How much rice do you want?) |
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I for one never stopped using the term 'french fries'. And I've never heard anyone I know over here use anything else -- other than shortening the expression 'french fries' to 'fries'. That shortened form has probably been in use for decades over here.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English |
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Yankee
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| Thu Jun 05, 2008 18:34 pm Usage of much and many (How much rice do you want?) |
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| Molly wrote: | | Jamie (K) wrote: | | Molly wrote: | | Quote: | | French fries are countable, so it should be..., |
Has the term "French fries" returned to your shores? |
It never left. |
Wasn't it usurped for a while? Y'know, when you got all upset with the French for not doing what you wanted to force them to do. |
Oh, some small independent restaurant somewhere probably started using the word "freedom fries" or something, and that one incident got splattered all over the European media and people generalized it in their minds to the whole United States. It was another chance for Europeans to feel superior. In fact, Americans never stopped using the term "french fries" for a second.
Compare this to the French, who actually have laws that fine and otherwise penalize businesses that use American terms.
Also, it wasn't that the French weren't doing what the US was "trying to force them to do". They were actually providing war materiel (including rockets) and intelligence to Saddam Hussein's regime, in violation of UN sanctions. Officials on Jacques Chirac's staff were being paid off by the regime with millions of dollars in oil futures. French companies were violating the UN sanctions by negotiating oil deals with the Iraqi regime, and in order to facilitate them, they were trying to get the sanctions lifted. Then when there was a danger that Saddam Hussein would be toppled, and the French oil contracts might not be honored by the next government, Chirac started bellowing that "war for oil" slogan, and nobody brought up Chirac's tendency to back up genocidal dictators for economic gain. |
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Jamie (K)
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| Thu Jun 05, 2008 19:42 pm Usage of much and many (How much rice do you want?) |
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| Quote: | | It was another chance for Europeans to feel superior. |
Not the Brits and Irish, eh? They say "chips".
| Quote: | | nobody brought up Chirac's tendency to back up genocidal dictators for economic gain. |
Lucky for the States and Britain, eh? They also would have had to talk about their tendecy to do the same. |
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Molly
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| pronuncation of Monday | blunder vs error |
