Some questions in my mind about English grammar.
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Hello everyone. I've been wondering about some grammar and your help would be greatly appreciated.
Could you tell me what sentence is correct/wrong/natural or not natural? Thanks a lot in advance :) If there are any distinctions between American or British English, please advise me so!
Every people are happy.
Everyone is happy.
There is 1 people there.
There is someone there.
There is 1 person there.
There are 2 people there.
There are 2 persons there.
I want to be his friend.
I want to be friends with him.
I want us to be friend.
I want us to be friends.
The French people are nice.
The French are nice.
French people is nice.
French people are nice.
French are nice. (for people)
French is nice. (for language)
I have no question.
I have no questions.
How'd I know?
Why'd I know?
Thanks :)
Could you tell me what sentence is correct/wrong/natural or not natural? Thanks a lot in advance :) If there are any distinctions between American or British English, please advise me so!
Every people are happy.
Everyone is happy.
There is 1 people there.
There is someone there.
There is 1 person there.
There are 2 people there.
There are 2 persons there.
I want to be his friend.
I want to be friends with him.
I want us to be friend.
I want us to be friends.
The French people are nice.
The French are nice.
French people is nice.
French people are nice.
French are nice. (for people)
French is nice. (for language)
I have no question.
I have no questions.
How'd I know?
Why'd I know?
Thanks :)
Could you tell me which sentences are correct/wrong/natural or not natural?///whether these sentences are..
Thanks a lot in advance :) If there are any distinctions between American or British English, please advise me so!//Please let me know
All the people are happy.
There is 1 person there.
There are 2 persons there.
Used in formal or technical writing.
I want us to be friends.
French people are nice.
I have no questions.
How'd I know?//How would I know?
Why'd I know?//Why are you asking me?
"Why'd I know" seems a littke odd to me, but I wouldn't rule it out.
Every people are person is happy.
"Every people are happy." isn't proper grammar. You could say, "Every person is happy.", "Everybody is happy.", or the sentence you wrote below, "Everyone is happy."
There is 1 people person there.
"People" is plural so when there is only 1, it's 1 person.
There are 2 persons there.
This is correct, but the word "persons" isn't used very often in everyday English. It's more often found in legal documents like police reports and contracts.
I want us to be friends.
In this case you're talking about at least 2 people so you use the plural, "friends".
French people is are nice.
You're speaking about more than one person (people) so you have to use "are".
The French are nice.
This is incorrect because "French" alone means the language. "The French" means "the French people" or "the people of France." You could say "French is nice." which would mean "The French language is nice."
I have no question.
This is technically correct, but a more natural way to say it is, "I don't have a question."
I have no questions.
This is correct and much more natural than, "I have no question." You could also say, "I don't have any questions."
How'd I know?
This is correct and is a contraction for "How did I know?" I personally feel that "how'd" is very informal compared to certain other, more common contractions like "can't". If I was speaking to my boss at work, I would be fine with saying "can't" but not "how'd".
Why'd I know?
This is fine, and is a contraction for "Why did I know?" (Very informal, just like "how'd".) I think it basically means the same thing as "How did I know?" but "How did I know?" is much more common.
One thing you have to keep in mind is that English is often spoken very differently depending on what region you're in. I'm American and here in New York where I live, we talk very different from people who live down south. "I have no question." is certainly proper English, but where I'm from it is much more natural to say, "I don't have a question."
The same is for "How'd I know." It's very possible to use it to mean "How would I know?" but I've never in my life used it that way and none of the people I grew up around ever used it that way either. What we end up doing in speech is almost combining the two words so it sounds like "Howould I know?" but whenever we use the contraction, "how'd" it always means "how did". The same goes for "why'd". I'm just in one small part of a very large country though and there are other countries that speak English so I'm sure there are people who use it differently.