Discussion Forum
This is a forum to discuss the gray areas of the English language for which you would not find answers easily in dictionaries or other reference books.
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In Wired magazine, I came across: “fast and furious Internet speeds”. Why “speeds”? Why plural? Why is “speed” countable in the first place? Speed is measurable, but you can’t really count the concept of velocity itself, like one speed, two speeds, three speeds.
Is it wrong to say, “The life of the people”? Or, do you have to say, “The lives of the people”? When you use “of” in this context do the numbers (pluralization) have to match between the first noun and the last noun?
For some reason I’ve always thought the word “news” had an article attached to it, i.e., “a news”. Like: “That’s a good news.” I always said. No one corrected me until today. Thank you Manny.
Every native speaker has a different opinion about where the commas go when you list more than 2 words. Which is correct? “apples, oranges and grapes.” or “apples, oranges, and grapes”
Now, when I think of counting, the first thing that comes to my mind is money. So why is the word “money” considered un-countable? Why is this wrong?: “I have a lot of monies.”
OK, I was talking to Roxy about rhyming, and she tells me that “purple” does not rhyme with “people”. They sound similar enough for all intents and purposes. Just why are they not considered rhyming words?
