More than 40 of us ...

Irma (Email Removed) wrote on 01 Apr 2004:
[nq:1]I have a question. Could you please help me? The sentences is: Our teacher knows all the students by ... could say " .. eventhough we are more than 40 (people). (?) Could you please give me some other examples?[/nq]
I'd say that "Even though there are more than 40 of us, our teacher knows all our names" is another reasonable way of saying i

[nq:1]The sentences is: Our teacher knows all the students by name, even though there are more than 40 of ... I should say always this way or I could say " .. eventhough we are more than 40 (people). (?)[/nq]
The "we are 40" construction (though normal in many languages) is not as idiomatic in English as the "there are 40 of us" construction.

Adrian

[nq:2]The sentences is: Our teacher knows all the students ... " .. eventhough we are more than 40 (people). (?)[/nq]
[nq:1]The "we are 40" construction (though normal in many languages) is not as idiomatic in English as the "there are 40 of us" construction. Adrian[/nq]
Thanks a lot for your help, it is clear, but ..

Taking the same sentence...
"Even though there are

[nq:1]Hi, I have a question. Could you please help me? The sentences is: Our teacher knows all the students ... eventhough we are more than 40 (people). (?) Could you please give me some other examples? Thanks a lot. Irma.[/nq]
It's a stock phrase used when you're
not totally sure of the exact number.
eg More than a thousand people demonstrated
in the streets.
More than one pe

[nq:1]It's a stock phrase used when you're not totally sure of the exact number. eg More than a thousand people demonstrated in the streets. More than one person in this department does not like our supervisor.[/nq]
Thanks John, that's very kind. :-)

[nq:1]More than one person in this department does not like our supervisor.[/nq]
"More than one person" is at least two, which is plural, but they still does not like our supervisor. English learners have reasons to complain!

Robert Zhang > misc.education.language.english
in will be no longer active

On 4 Apr 2004 17:01:13 +0200, Enrico C
[nq:1]Robert Zhang > misc.education.language.english in <[/nq]
[nq:2]"More than one person" is at least two, which is plural, but they still does not like our supervisor. English learners have reasons to complain![/nq]
[nq:1]It happens the same in Italian.[/nq]
Same in German
Mehr als eine Person "ist" krank.
And if my Spani

[nq:2]More than one person in this department does not like our supervisor.[/nq]
[nq:1]"More than one person" is at least two, which is plural,[/nq]
But you didn't write "more than one person are at least two, which are plural".
More than one may be plural in arithmetic, but grammar has its own rules and is bound by those of neither arithmetic nor, as you have found out, logic.

[nq:2]More than one person in this department does not like our supervisor.[/nq]
[nq:1]"More than one person" is at least two, which is plural, but they still does not like our supervisor. English learners have reasons to complain![/nq]
No natural languagew is completely logical, it's just that we normally don't recogfnise the illogicalisties of our own language.

There is