corrections 1

Question

Can I say,(A) There were all 45 storybooks.(b) She sold all forty books.(c) She put the price tags onto the books.    She put the price tags on all the boxes.(d) She sold the books on the charity sale.(e) She put mangoes in / into the plastic bag.(f) He sold forty books each. (g) He totally has forty-five bags of mangoes and tomatoes to sell. (i) He has forty bags of tomatoes and mangoes each.

Delmobile · Accepted Answer

(A) There were all 45 storybooks. This is grammatically correct but odd; a more common sentence would be "There were 45 storybooks in all," meaning a total number of 45.

One by one, the books disappeared from the library, until all 45 storybooks were gone. Little did we know the dog had been stealing them. I looked in the doghouse, and there were all 45 storybooks.

The display included fairytales and other children's stories from Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Koren and China. There were 45 storybooks in all.

(b) She sold all forty books.
Fine

(c) She put the price tags onto the books.
Fine; "on the books" would also work. Also see below.

She put the price tags on all the boxes.
Fine; this means a particular group of price tags. ("Jane ordered elaborately decorated, gilt-edged price tags. When they arrived, she put the price tags on all the boxes.") "She put price tags on all the boxes" would be the usual way to express the idea that all the boxes had been tagged.

(d) She sold the books on the charity sale.
She sold the books at the charity sale.

(e) She put mangoes in / into the plastic bag.
Fine

(f) He sold forty books each.
John and Mary sold eighty books. They each sold forty books. They sold forty books each. John sold ten books each day of the four-day sale.

(g) He totally has forty-five bags of mangoes and tomatoes to sell.
This is only correct as an example of the use of "http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=totally" as slang, see link. ("OMG, you mean he picked all the fruit in the school garden?" "He sure did, and he's selling it. He totally has, like, forty-five bags of mangoes and tomatoes and he's selling them by the highway." "But he can't do that! That's, like, totally stolen merchandise!")

He has twenty bags of mangoes and twenty-five bags of tomatoes to sell; he has a total of forty-five bags. He has forty-five bags in total.
(i) He has forty bags of tomatoes and mangoes each.
He has a total of eighty bags of fruit. He has forty bags each of tomatoes and mangoes. "He has forty bags of tomatoes and mangoes each" might be understood, but is a little awkward.

/quote

Vincent Teo · Answer

Thanks. You give me a clear explanation!!

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