|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Ask for help > Fruit and vegetables
Fruit and vegetables
|
martinasvabova
|
Fruit and vegetables
|
|
Could you please help me with this: I have made a dice with fruit and vegetables pictures. Is it correct to call it FRUIT AND VEGETABLES DICE or should it be FRUITS AND VEGETABLES DICE, if there are various kinds of fruits? Thank you a lot for your help. |
21 Mar 2010
|
|
|
|
Bahrain
|
|
fruits can be countable an uncountable so u can say fruits and vegetavles dice |
21 Mar 2010
|
|
|
libertybelle
|
Dice is plural and die is singular.
You can also say Fruit and vegetables.
|
21 Mar 2010
|
|
|
martinasvabova
|
|
I think dice is possible for singular in British English too, am I right ? |
21 Mar 2010
|
|
|
libertybelle
|
Die is singular and dice is plural - when people say throw the dice and only have one - that � s because the language has been corrupted through use.
But it is not correct - at least not until the dictionary changes.
I �ve heard lots of people say stoled instead of stole. That doesn �t make it correct - but it is used.
|
21 Mar 2010
|
|
|
almaz
|
|
Er...most dictionaries worth their salt have changed or, at least, you �ll find that they will say that dice as a singular is now considered standard usage - no mention of being incorrect. �Corrupted � is a pretty strong word when talking about a language which constantly evolves (when was the last time you used brethren as the plural of brother?)
Please don �t think I �m having a go at you personally, but I �ve never heard any native English speaker over the age of three use stoled. Actually, I�ve never heard anyone use it. Is it an American thing?
|
21 Mar 2010
|
|
|
lshorton99
|
To all my brethren here on the site!
I have to agree with almaz. And I quote the Collins Advanced Learners Dictionary:
�In old-fashioned English, �dice � was used only as a plural form, and the singular was die, but now �dice � is used as both the singular and the plural form. �
Also - �stoled �? Not in a million years! I can �t speak for the USA but in the UK it would never be used by anyone who spent more than five minutes in primary school! If that makes it into a dictionary then I �m quitting my job to go and write poetry in outer Mongolia!
Having said that, I do now feel the urge to use �brethren � as often as possible. Along with �perspicacious � which one of my FCE students shamed me by using in class two days ago!
Have a lovely day everyone!
|
21 Mar 2010
|
|
|
GIOVANNI
|
|
If you check in the Oxford dictionary http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/dice?view=uk you will find that dice is now considered singular as well as plural in U.K. dictionaries. In American dictionaries dice is still plural. I often hear �dice � as singular when people speak in Canada, when there is only one. |
21 Mar 2010
|
|
|
yanogator
|
|
Yes, "dice" is becoming very common as singular in the US, too. It �s still at the point that someone around will always correct the person who uses it.
As for "stoled", many people here use incorrect past and past participle forms. A good friend of mine uses "seen" as the simple past of "see". I don �t think I �ve heard "stoled", but I �ve heard many other past forms that are just as wrong.
Bruce |
21 Mar 2010
|
|
|
