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Vincent Teo Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

corrections 1

Can I say,

(a) We must wash hands when we eat.

(b) The bird is on the house roof.

(c) I must wash hands to eat.

(d) They love to play marbles.

He played the marbles with his friends on the ground.

(e) He arranged the books in / om the cupboard.

(f) He is carrying twin babies.
  

Top answer

(a) We must wash our hands before we eat. -- OK (c) I must wash my hands before I eat. -- OK He played marbles with his friends on the ground.

— Mister Micawber

  • (a) We must wash our hands before we eat.
  • -- OK (c) I must wash my hands before I eat.
  • -- OK He played marbles with his friends on the ground.
  • (e) He arranged the books in / on / under / beside /etc the cupboard.
  • -- OK
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5 Answers
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(a) We must wash our hands before we eat.

(b) The bird is on the house roof.-- OK

(c) I must wash my hands before I eat.

(d) They love to play marbles.-- OK

He played marbles with his friends on the ground.

(e) He arranged the books in / on / under / beside /etc the cupboard.

(f)
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Can I say,

(d) They love to play with marbles.

He played with the marbles with his friends on the ground. (must put "with'?)
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The is grammatically possible, but semantically unusual, Vincent. There are very few marble players nowadays, but there used to be several games of marbles, like 'potsie'-- all of these were called 'playing marbles' (no 'the'), just like 'playing baseball' or 'playing draughts'.
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You can use "with". Not an issue at all.
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I disagree, Neeraj. To me, playing marbles would be playing one of the accepted, formalised marble games (bulls-eye, potsie, whatever), whereas playing with marbles would just mean marbles were involved in whatever play activity was happening - perhaps throwing them into a bucket of water, or something.
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