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Mitsuo23 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
A friend vs my friend.
Hi all, my question is, how many agents do you see in this scene?
It's from the beginning of a book.
ANYYONE WHO WATCHES EVEN THE SLIGHTEST amount of TV is familiar with the scene: An agent knocks on the door of some seemingly ordinary home or office. The door opens, and the person holding the knob is asked to identify himself. The agent then says, 'Tm going to ask you to come with me."
They're always remarkably calm, these agents. If asked "Why do I need to go anywhere with you? " they'll straighten their shirt cuffs or idly brush stray hairs from the sleeves of their sport coats and say, "Oh, I think we both know why."
I actually see two guys in my mind, because in this kind of scene, agents usually work in pairs. But at the same time, if there's more than one agent, I believe the sentence has to be like, "one of the agents knocks on the door of..." to be correct grammatically.
Do you see only one guy? or how many?
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It's from the beginning of a book.
ANYYONE WHO WATCHES EVEN THE SLIGHTEST amount of TV is familiar with the scene: An agent knocks on the door of some seemingly ordinary home or office. The door opens, and the person holding the knob is asked to identify himself. The agent then says, 'Tm going to ask you to come with me."
They're always remarkably calm, these agents. If asked "Why do I need to go anywhere with you? " they'll straighten their shirt cuffs or idly brush stray hairs from the sleeves of their sport coats and say, "Oh, I think we both know why."
I actually see two guys in my mind, because in this kind of scene, agents usually work in pairs. But at the same time, if there's more than one agent, I believe the sentence has to be like, "one of the agents knocks on the door of..." to be correct grammatically.
Do you see only one guy? or how many?
=
and sorry another question just popped into my mind.
if I say, "yeah, he is my friend." I think that implies I have just one friend.
if I say, "year, he is a friend." I think that means he's a friend of mine, so I have some other friends.
Am I correct?
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Thank you for your help in advance,
m
Top answer
You are right. There is only one agent in the scene. The reason that "agents" is used in the second paragraph is because the the scene is no longer being described.
- You are right.
- There is only one agent in the scene.
- The reason that "agents" is used in the second paragraph is because the the scene is no longer being described.
- The writer has moved from discussing a specific agent, to talking about all agents.
- As for the second question, As far as telling how many friends you have, both sentences are ambiguous.
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2 Answers
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You are right. There is only one agent in the scene.
The reason that "agents" is used in the second paragraph is because the the scene is no longer being described. The writer has moved from discussing a specific agent, to talking about all agents.
As for the second question,
As far as telling how many friends you have, both sentences are ambiguous. They c
The reason that "agents" is used in the second paragraph is because the the scene is no longer being described. The writer has moved from discussing a specific agent, to talking about all agents.
As for the second question,
As far as telling how many friends you have, both sentences are ambiguous. They c
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