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Perfect Stranger Posted 11 years ago
Vocabulary
Vocabulary question: disdain + to/towards/of/for?
Hello everyone,
I'd like to ask which of the following prepositions you would find most natural to follow the word disdain.
Numbers are a disdain ___ human emotions.
for/to/towards/of
Thank you
PS Is disdain countable or not? My dictionary says it's uncountable, therefore I'm not quite sure if having an indefinite article there is correct or not.
I'd like to ask which of the following prepositions you would find most natural to follow the word disdain.
Numbers are a disdain ___ human emotions.
for/to/towards/of
Thank you
PS Is disdain countable or not? My dictionary says it's uncountable, therefore I'm not quite sure if having an indefinite article there is correct or not.
Top answer
I'm afraid the sentence means nothing. 'Disdain is uncountable. Its meaning can be found here .
- I'm afraid the sentence means nothing.
- 'Disdain is uncountable.
- Its meaning can be found here .
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12 Answers
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You will find each of {for, to, towards, of} in print. Current English heavily favors "for," and most uses of "to" are part of a following infinitive. So "Numbers are a disdain for human emotions" is your best choice.
Disdain is an emotion, which is not countable, so you wouldn't say "Numbers are only one of threedisdains for human emotions." But the indefinite article indi
Disdain is an emotion, which is not countable, so you wouldn't say "Numbers are only one of three
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A: Did you compile the demographic statistics I asked for?
B: No, numbers are a disdain for human emotions.
B: No, numbers are a disdain for human emotions.
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deadratA: Did you compile the demographic statistics I asked for?B: No, numbers are a disdain for human emotions.Thank you deadrat.That's another excellent answer from you.
What I don't understand I'm afraid is why an uncountable noun, such as disdain is preceded by an indefinite article a
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deadrat No, numbers are a disdain for human emotions.That sound most unnatural to me. If you like playing with numbers, you can show a disdain for human emotions, but I don't see how numbers can be a disdain.
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It's certainly stilted, but I think it's an acceptable metaphorical usage to have "numbers" refer to their employment. Somewhat along the lines of "The numbers don't lie."
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Countable and uncountable nouns differ in the use of plurals and in the way we quantify them. Generally, we don't pluralize uncountable nouns. You might feel disdain three times in a day, but you wouldn't talk about your three disdains. And you might feel less disdain one day but you wouldn't say you felt fewer disdain.
This is separate from the use of articles, which are used to parti
This is separate from the use of articles, which are used to parti
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deadratIt's certainly stilted,So stilted that I would mark it as incorrect if one of my students said/wrote it. I doubt if it would impress many examiners.
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Then the examiners you know are soulless crushers of creative expression.
Do you grade on a curve?
Do you grade on a curve?
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deadratThen the examiners you know are soulless crushers of creative expression.I don't think so. but they do tend to reject language that native speakers would not produce in normal life.
If we lead our members to believe that unnatural English is 'creatively expressive', then we are lowering their chances of success in the major internationally va
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