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ESL forum > Ask for help > Please help me     

Please help me



Pretty3
Saudi Arabia

Please help me
 
Hi,
I have 2 questions
 
 
Which sentence is right :
 
1- They are American
 
2- They are Americans ?
 
Can we use the plural form with nationalities ??
 
 
Which question is right :
 
1- Make YesNo question ?
or
2- Make a YesNo question ??
 
 
 
Thanks a lot in advance :)
 
 

13 Oct 2010      





pilarmham
Spain

You can in this case, because American can be both a noun and an adjective. But you can �t do it in most cases! For example: Spanish is an adjective (it can never be plural!), Spaniard is a noun (so you can say 20 Spaniards, in plural).
I would say a yes / no question (questions are countable).

13 Oct 2010     



lizamuni
Argentina

"They are American" is correct, not the second sentence because nationalities are adjectives and they aren�t used in plural form.
About the second question:
1- Make Yes/No questions (if you want many questions) 
or
2- Make a yes/no question (if you want only one question)
 
Hope to have helped you!
Have a nice day!!!
Liza

13 Oct 2010     



zoemorosini
United States

Hi there!  In my opinion both "American" and "Americans" are correct, depending on the context.

For example:  What nationality/country of origin are those people/things?  They are American.
What are those people?  Are they Englishmen?  No, they are Americans.

For your second question, I would definitely use the phrase "A yes/no question" or "A yes/no answer."

Your American friend

13 Oct 2010     



Pretty3
Saudi Arabia

Thank you
What about other nationalities like saudi , Qatari , Jordanian ...etc?
 
Can we use the plural form ??

13 Oct 2010     



mcolon
Puerto Rico

pilarmham is right. That depends on its function within a sentences. If its used as a noun, it can be pluralized, opposed to adjectives which can �t!

13 Oct 2010