two questions for me

Question

1. Can you give me some expresssions of quantity to modify words like confidence, courage and conscience in a similar fashion as the expression "a few" for countable nouns?

_____ (a few) confidence

______ (a few) courage

_______ (a few) conscience

2. Is the corrections in parentheses correct? I think you can go either way, company rules or company's rules, and either way is acceptable.

He has to keep an eye on their (them???) keeping the company (company's???) rules

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

[a lot of / a great deal of / much / (very) little / hardly any ] [confidence / courage]

It can't be done for conscience. It's not something you can have different quantities of.

[a clear / a guilty] conscience (Like [a broken / a strong] arm, you can't have a lot of arm. conscience is countable but rarely used in the plural.)

CJ

Emagdoub · Answer

1- We say Much or Little confidence, (an abstract noun):

He had much confidence in himself

He had little confidence in his abilities.

The same applies to the abstract noun "courage".

He had little courage to do it.

As for conscience (Oxford Advanced Learners): it's the conciousness within onself of the choice one ought to make.

He has a clear / guilty conscience.

He has no conscience

He cleared his conscience

2-Yes, both ways are acceptable.

3- He has to keep an eye on THEM.

Their is a possesive pronoun . This is why we can say he has to keep an eye on their dogs or he has to keep an eye on them but u can't use their without being followed by a noun.

Hope I could answer ur questions.

Amy

CalifJim · Answer

their or them
company or company's

CJ

Believer · Answer

Thank you.

Can you kindly explain to me why the use of a possessive pronoun "their" would be all right?

This is in regard to question no. 2 of the original post.

... on their keeping the company rules.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Keeping is a gerund - a noun that is formed from and looks like a verb. People are often confused about the use of a possessive before a gerund, and many native speakers don't write it with the possessive, and even fewer speak it with the possessive. I'm not sure if "the law of common usage" has caused "them" to usurp the truly grammatical "their" - CJ would have more information on that. But to tell you that "their" is incorrect is bad information.

CalifJim · Answer

explain to me why the use of a possessive pronoun "their" would be all right

The possessive before a gerund is preferred in formal writing unless it makes no sense at all.
In other contexts the objective case pronoun is possible -- again, unless it makes no sense at all.

A gerund is a hybrid between a noun and a verb. It's often a matter of which idea you want to emphasize more. Is the person doing the action (the noun subject) more important? Or is the action itself (the verb) more important?

I feel safer with John driving, i.e., when John is driving.
I feel safer with John's driving makes no sense. You are traveling with John, not with his driving.

Your example is, as many are, a borderline case. It comes close, almost dangerously close, perhaps, to the catenative structure to see someone ---ing, which is not to see someone's ---ing.

We see them playing in the garden.
We keep an eye on them playing in the garden.

For this reason, I'm inclined to prefer them over their in your example. But both seem possible. You may be keeping more of an eye on their activities (on their playing) than on them individually (on them - as they play). It always depends on what idea you want to communicate. That is why youcan make the choice!

In your example it's a matter of what you are keeping your eye on. On the employees (them) -- to insure that they obey the rules? Or on the keeping of the rules -- on the activities that are evidence that the rules are being followed?

CJ
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