The beaver's tail vs beavers' tails
(1) The beaver's tail is flat.
(2) Beavers' tails are flat.
My non-native English speaking friends think my first sentence is good because it talks about any individual beaver representing the whole species. But, they are not sure if my second sentence is grammatical and sounds natural to native speakers.
What is your opinion? Thanks a lot.
Top answer
Both are fine. (1) is about one beaver. (2) is about all beavers.
- Both are fine.
- (1) is about one beaver.
- (2) is about all beavers.
- CJ
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
"The beaver" can be the prototypical beaver, a generic beaver. "The beaver's tail is flat" can mean that the animal known as the beaver has a flat tail. This is a relatively rare and rather peculiar use of the article "the". For example, "The beaver's tail is flat, but the muskrat's tail is round. This is one way to tell them apart." An equivalent way of saying that, perfectly correct but not
0
Related Questions