Timeline for "one" vs "it", "ones" vs "them"
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 29, 2023 at 15:26 | comment | added | Peter Kirkpatrick | Actually no. I see what you're saying about the French construction. In effect, a French speaker doesn't "eat the nuts", he eats from the nuts (ie, he eats a selection of the nuts). But the whole point is that English doesn't make that distinction. | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 23:34 | comment | added | kuwabara | "I like nuts." and "I eat nuts." are two completely different things. This is very clear from the fact that you cannot say "I like a nut" while you can say "I eat a nut". The former mentions nuts as a concept while the latter refers them as tangible objects. You can also see this from the fact that you say "J'aime les noix" and "Je mange des noix" in French You use "les" when you mention things as a concept and "des" to mention them as objects. "Nuts" in "I like nuts" and "I eat nuts" are different. | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 22:54 | answer | added | David Siegel | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 22:53 | comment | added | stangdon | Why do you think that them needs to refer to particular nuts? It sounds perfectly natural to this US English speaker: Do you like nuts? / Yes, I like them. | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 22:11 | history | asked | kuwabara | CC BY-SA 4.0 |