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Can I say,(1) He picked / picked up a comic (book) from the shelf. (2) They enjoy wearing Japanese clothing / clothings.(3) They enjoy eating Japanese food / cuisine. (4) Sam beat Vince in a race.(5) She consoled her son.(6) The walked up the mountain slowly.(7) He is sailing a yatch by himself.(8) She ordered some juice because the weather is hot.(9) The earth rotates round the sun.(10) She could not open the lock because she does not know where is the key.

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

(1) He picked / picked up a comic (book) from the shelf. -- OK, but they don't mean the same thing. "picked up" means "grasped with the hand and lifted"; "picked" means "chose" or "selected".

(2) They enjoy wearing Japanese clothing / clothes ~~clothings~~.

(3) They enjoy eating Japanese food / cuisine. -- "food" is fine; "cuisine" is acceptable I suppose, but "eating cuisine" seems slightly odd. It would be more usual to say "They enjoy Japanese cuisine".

(4) Sam beat Vince in a race. -- OK

(5) She consoled her son. -- OK

(6) The walked up the mountain slowly. -- OK, but stylistically I prefer "They slowly walked up the mountain" or "They walked slowly up the mountain".

(7) He is sailing a yacht by himself. -- You could also say "He is sailing a yacht single-handed(ly)".

(8) She ordered some juice because the weather is hot. -- mismatched tenses need fixing

(9) The earth rotates round the sun. -- OK, but I prefer "around" (though in most contexts I think "round" and "around" are pretty much interchangeable in my usage). Actually, I prefer "The earth orbits the sun". When talking about astronomical matters, some people capitalise "Earth" and "Sun".

(10) She could not open the lock because she does not know where the key is. -- This tense combination ("could not ... is") is possible, but more likely is "could not ... was" or "cannot ... is". In everyday English, especially spoken English, contractions ("couldn't", "can't", "doesn't") would almost always be used. Edit: sorry, I overlooked the fact that the verb "does" is also implicated in this.

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