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Navitasan Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
One
Can one say:
1-Jeff said that Niles might have left with some of my books. If one is missing, I'll have to teach Niles a good lesson.
or:
2-Jeff said that Niles might have left with some of my books. If one of them is missing, I'll have to teach Niles a good lesson.
instead of:
3-Jeff said that Niles might have left with some of my books. If a particular one is missing, I'll have to teach Niles a good lesson.
Here the speaker is worried about one specific book and doesn't care about the others. I am not sure that 1 or 2 mean that. To me, 1 and 2 mean that if any book is missing, Niles will have to be taught a good lesson.
1-Jeff said that Niles might have left with some of my books. If one is missing, I'll have to teach Niles a good lesson.
or:
2-Jeff said that Niles might have left with some of my books. If one of them is missing, I'll have to teach Niles a good lesson.
instead of:
3-Jeff said that Niles might have left with some of my books. If a particular one is missing, I'll have to teach Niles a good lesson.
Here the speaker is worried about one specific book and doesn't care about the others. I am not sure that 1 or 2 mean that. To me, 1 and 2 mean that if any book is missing, Niles will have to be taught a good lesson.
Top answer
All three versions are fine. The third is a bit uncommon. Your interpretation of "particular" is correct.
- All three versions are fine.
- The third is a bit uncommon.
- Your interpretation of "particular" is correct.
- To use it to mean "any one" would be colloquial.
- " That is, you're sure that one is missing, because it's a "particular" one.
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4 Answers
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All three versions are fine. The third is a bit uncommon. 
Your interpretation of "particular" is correct. To use it to
Your interpretation of "particular" is correct. To use it to
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I wouldn't use any of your three examples to convey the meaning you intend. Instead the speaker should refer either to the title of the book ("if Gone With the Wind is missing") or to it's subject matter ("if my history book", "if my math book", etc).
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Edit.
Sorry, I didn't make that very clear.
If you discover that a book is missing because you count them and find one fewer than expected, "particular" wouldn't be appropriate.
However, if the missing book is "identifiable," it might be used by some people. I'll grant you, it's something of a stretch.
Sorry, I didn't make that very clear.
If you discover that a book is missing because you count them and find one fewer than expected, "particular" wouldn't be appropriate.
However, if the missing book is "identifiable," it might be used by some people. I'll grant you, it's something of a stretch.
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navitasanHere the speaker is worried about one specific book and doesn't care about the others. I am not sure that 1 or 2 mean that. (You can be sure they don't.) To me, 1 and 2 mean that if any book is missing, Niles will have to be taught a good lesson.That is correct. More idiomatically, a native speaker might do a
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