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What would be the plural form of a child's pedal car?
Michael Rybkin
Posted 2014-05-15T00:08:55.143
Reputation: 37 124
What would be the plural form of "a child's pedal car"?
Answers
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If you're speaking of multiple pedal cars all belonging to one unspecified child:
a child's pedal cars
If you're speaking of multiple pedal cars belonging to multiple children:
children's pedal cars
If you're speaking of multiple pedal cars of the sort children use, undefined in distribution:
child's pedal cars
StoneyB on hiatus
Posted 2014-05-15T00:08:55.143
Reputation: 176 469
6
The following are various forms of expressing plurality:
- That child's pedal cars are expensive! (Multiple peddle cars)
- The children's pedal cars are ready. (At least one per child.)
- That child has many pedal cars.
- Look at all those children with their pedal cars. (Ambiguous if any child has more than one.)
- Each child has a (single) pedal car. (Multiple cars, but only one per child.)
- All the children have pedal cars. (Ambiguous if any child has more than one.)
- Some children have pedal cars. (Ambiguous if any child has more than one.)
- Some children have more than one pedal car. (Ambiguous if any child has zero pedal cars.)
CoolHandLouis
Posted 2014-05-15T00:08:55.143
Reputation: 7 937
1"Some children have ..." implies that not all children have cars, else you wouldn't use "some". – Doc – 2014-05-15T03:23:21.387
"Some" is often used to mean "not all". So, "Some children have x" implies that other children do not have x. – Gus – 2014-05-15T14:00:07.253
@CoolHandLouis "Some children have pedal cars. (Ambiguous if any child has more than one.)" <- that line is specifically what I was referring to. That said, even "Some children have more than one pedal car. (...)" is, as said in the answer, also ambiguous if any child has none, but inherently implies that some children have only one or none. – Doc – 2014-05-16T18:06:40.880