Please, help me with some questions .

Question

Hello !Could you please, help me with my questions and check if some following sentences are OK?He loves to eat onion soup (by the way in English do we say to eat soup or to drink it ? Because soup is something liquid, not solid to eat.). We went to the show even though we hadn't been invited.He has hardly any dollars in his pocket to buy food.It's better to wait (or) it's better wait ?    Thanks so much in advance.

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

1. He loves to eat onion soup (by the way in English do we say to eat soup or to drink it ? Because soup is something liquid, not solid to eat.).

Hmm. I certainly don't say "drink soup" but now that you mention it, "eat soup" is odd too. I would say simply "He loves onion soup." (I certainly like the kind with melted cheese on top!)

2) We went to the show even though we hadn't been invited.

This is fine.

3)He has hardly any ~~dollars~~ money in his pocket to buy food.

4) It's better to wait ~~(or) it's better wait ?~~

Anonymous · Answer

Hi, Grammar Geek!

Thanks for helping me, but I still have some questions :

1) You said it's better simply to say: he loves onion soup. But what do American people consider as right : He loves eating soup ?

2) Let's suppose I have the following sentence:

- He has few dollars in his pocket to buy food.

If I had to replace the underlined words above by hardly any, wouldn't I have : he has hardly any dollars in his pocket (?)

Now if my previous sentence was : he has little money in his pocket to buy food, and I had to replace little money by hardly any, so I would have : he has hardly any money, isn' t it ?

So why can't I write : he has hardly any dollars in his pocket to buy food.

Thanks once more for your kind attention,

BarbaraPA · Answer

1) If you held a knife to my throad and said "Choose! Eat soup or drink soup?" then I would choose "eat." But it doesn't sound natural to me. He loves to have soup as an appetizer. He loves soup as his main course.

2) He has only a few dollars in his pocket. He has hardly any money.

I can't see the original post as I write this reply, so perhaps I gave you bad advice earlier. "He has few dollars" isn't idiomatic. He has only a few dollars or he has little money. Likewise, "He has hardly any dollars" simply isn't idiomatic.

You can use it for other nouns: He has many toys, he has a few toys, he has few toys, he has hardly any toys.

Just not dollars, because that means "money," a non-countable noun. If you want to refer to single dollar bills (for example, you need them to tip the waiter, the valet, the doorman, etc.) then you can say "He'll have a hard time tipping them all tonight - he has hardly any dollar bills on him."

Anonymous · Answer

Hi Grammar Geek,

Thanks again. I appreciated your explanations a lot !

Best wishes.

Yoong Liat · Answer

Anonymous
Hi, Grammar Geek!

- He has few dollars in his pocket to buy food. ('Few' means 'not many'. Therefore, your sentence means 'He has not many dollars ... ' Hence, the sentence is not correct.

He has a few dollars in his pocket to buy food. ( The sentence is correct if 'a' is added. )

Please, help me with some questions .

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