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Anthony Kim Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Plural? Singular?
I want to say the below sentence and I am all confused up with singular/plural. Should I say it like in sentence 1 or like in sentence 2?
1. We live only once, and we wanted to make it a meaningful one.
2. We live only once, and we wanted to make them meaningful ones.
perhaps is this better?
3. We live only once and we wanted to live meaningful lives.
If you have a better idea of saying it, please help. Thank you.
Best regards,
Anthony
1. We live only once, and we wanted to make it a meaningful one.
2. We live only once, and we wanted to make them meaningful ones.
perhaps is this better?
3. We live only once and we wanted to live meaningful lives.
If you have a better idea of saying it, please help. Thank you.
Best regards,
Anthony
Top answer
I would say it another way. The problem is that neither "one" nor "ones" refer back to anything. It cannot refer to "live" (a verb) and the noun it should refer to ("life" or "lives") is not in that sentence.
- I would say it another way.
- The problem is that neither "one" nor "ones" refer back to anything.
- It cannot refer to "live" (a verb) and the noun it should refer to ("life" or "lives") is not in that sentence.
- So: We only live once, so we want our life to be meaningful.
- Or We only have one life, so we want it to be meaningful.
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3 Answers
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I would say it another way. The problem is that neither "one" nor "ones" refer back to anything. It cannot refer to "live" (a verb) and the noun it should refer to ("life" or "lives") is not in that sentence.
So:
We only live once, so we want our life to be meaningful.
Or
We only have one life, so we want it to be meaningful.
So:
We only live once, so we want our life to be meaningful.
Or
We only have one life, so we want it to be meaningful.
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NOTE:
You can also say, correctly:
We only live once, so we want our lives to be meaningful. (When you are talking about a group of individuals vs what each individual would want).
You can also say, correctly:
We only live once, so we want our lives to be meaningful. (When you are talking about a group of individuals vs what each individual would want).
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