Right hand or right hands?

Question

Hi all,I have a problem about singular or plural.Here is the sentence:For most people, it is natural to live their lives mainly using the right hand.  They use their right hand to write and draw.My question is that is it OK to use "right hand" here?  Or should I use "right hands"??Also, in this sentence:People celebrate their birthday in many different ways.Is it OK to use "birthday" here?  Or should I use "birthdays" here?Thanks for your kindly help.YL

Cool Breeze · Accepted Answer

Use the singular in both cases. Their right hands might even imply that each person has two right hands!

CB

Ylhsu · Answer

Thanks, CB.

Well, so, can I say that if the noun/object is singular for each one, then, I can use the singular in this situation? Such as, many people's body, many people's heart, many people's nose.

Oh, and, if the noun is singular or plural, then I can use the singular or plural, right? Such as many people's pens, many people's shoes??

Kooyeen · Answer

This is one of the most difficult questions you can ask. I remember asking it a couple of times too, and I never got any clear answer.

You might be interested in this too, it's an old thread of mine:

If I had to think of an explanation, I'd say that probably it all depends on what you focus on. That's usually the explanation in a lot of similar cases, like notional agreement, etc.

The students all raised their right hands and started to wave them - Here the focus is on all the hands together: you can see them, that's what attracts your attention.
Not many students raised their hands when I asked them who liked the new book - The focus is again on the hands, that's what you noticed.
Please raise you hand(s) if you have any questions - You could see it either way: imagine you are talking to all the students together, or imagine you are talking to each of them separately.
People here celebrate their birthdays on the beach - The focus is on the birthdays, because each person celebrates more than one birthday during their life, there are a lot of birthday parties on the beach, etc.
For most people, it is natural to live their lives using mainly the right hand. They use their right hand to write and draw - Here "lives" is plural because the focus is on a lot of different people, with different lives... but "hand" is singular because the focus is not on all the right hands considered together. The main point is the difference between the right hand and the left hand.
Most Americans have at least one PC in their home - The focus is on what each American has, not what they have all together: for most Americans, you can say that each of them has at least one PC in their home.
Giraffes have long necks - This is just a general statement. There is no reason to focus on anything in particular, so I guess the plural is the "default" choice in cases like this, to make it agree with the subject.

Warning! This is just my opinion. I'm not a native speaker, so I might be wrong. I just like to analyze language and find explanations, because I believe there is always an explanation for everything. If any native speakers happen to read what I wrote and feel like commenting on it or correcting me, I'll appreciate it.

CalifJim · Answer

If it's of any interest or use to you, I am not any farther ahead in my understanding of the subject now than when I answered your post in that link.

CJ

Right hand or right hands?

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