Only some students hand in their homework on time.
Elsewhere on GuruEAP we’ve looked at alternatives to ‘some’, which tends to be overused by Indonesians translating from ‘beberapa’, or, in the example above – ‘hanya beberapa’.
In this post we look at other alternatives to ‘some’ that are especially problematic for Indonesians because they are awkward to translate: few, a few, little, and a little.
As with all quantifiers, we need to begin by deciding whether the noun we’re quantifying is countable or uncountable. Continue reading →
As usual I suggest you approach this problem lexically – in other words pay close attention to the words (lexis) immediately following these signals. Here are some examples. Continue reading →
For your entertainment! A song featuring the amazing Moya (L) and Dita (R). For those of us who are still not sure about some / some of, most / most of, etc!
Some of us work
Most of us play
All of us pray for success one day
None of us read
Some of us write
Some of us dance ’til the morning light
Some students like to stay out all night
Most teachers tell them that isn’t right
All study time their eyes are shut tight
How will they ever succeed?
Some of us smoke
Some of us drink
Few of us know how to write with ink
Some of us seek
Some of us find
None of us want to be left behind
Some students like to stay out all night
Most teachers tell them that isn’t right
All study time their eyes are shut tight
How will they ever succeed?
Reading’s boring; We end up snoring;
So many pages; But zero drawings
We only study; When there’s a test to take; Big mistake!
Some students like to stay out all night
Most teachers tell them that isn’t right
All study time their eyes are shut tight
So ineffectual; Unintellectual;
How will they ever succeed?
Elsewhere on GuruEAP we’ve looked at alternatives to ‘some’, which tends to be overused by Indonesians translating from ‘beberapa’, or, in the example above – ‘hanya beberapa’.