I notice that among all the most common mistakes made by asian language natives speaking or writing english is the quirk of affinitive pluralization. Take a look at these following examples:
“…every oak trees…”
“Is you feeling better?”
“…is they going?”
In the first example, “every oak trees”, ‘every’ IS the pluralization for the noun ‘tree’. So, the ‘s’ is unneeded. Why? Who knows, especially when you compare ‘every’ to other quantitative modifiers like ‘some’, ‘many’, ‘a lot’, and ‘quite a few’ which do not modify their parent noun. Just try to remember that ‘every’ is a special case. Just like Example 2.
In Example 2, “Is you” is incorrect, because while ‘is’ is paired with singular nouns ‘you’ and ‘I’ have unique sets. (“I am”, “am I,” “are you,” & “you are.”)
A note on this; “am I,” & “are you.” If they are used as a fragment in, or as, a rhetorical question they are actually quite aggressive and usually sarcastic if the question has a negative answer. Read the narrative below.
As the light turns green, John begins to hit the gas. He notices movement out the corner of his eye. As he turns his head to see, he slams on his brakes to avoid the other driver from hitting him. “Shit,” he exclaims, as they collide into each other. John, while cursing his luck, watches as the other driver gets out of his car with something shiny and silver in his hand. John’s first was scared at first, as he thought it was a gun. But his fear turned to anger as he realized what it really was. “A cell phone! He was on his cell phone! Dude hit me ‘cause he was talking on his damn phone!” Meanwhile, the man looks at his car, then John’s, then back at his before he yells at John.
“Fucking asshole,” the man says, blaming John for the accident he caused himself.
“AM I!!!” John retorts in a growl, getting out of his own car and in the face of the other man.
The other man makes the classic fatal mistake of not knowing when to quit. “I don’t know, are you?” He replies in a condescending tone as he pushes John away.
Ten minutes later, John takes the time out to check his hands. They’re covered with blood. None of it is his. John grabs his “new” wallet and checks for cash. Counting it, he chirps to himself, “$610. Not bad. This’ll pay for the headlight and popping the dent outta the front bumper.” He then reaches for his “new” cell phone and places it under his tire for a little added amusement later.
Eight miles away, the other man wakes up to the sound of a young woman asking him what happened. The man tries to speak but the pain is unbearable. He knows his nose and jaw are broken and he’s pretty sure he just swallowed three teeth. As he nurses his jaw he realizes his wallet is missing from his pocket and his phone is nowhere to be seen.
As John cleans his hands in his kitchen sink he mutters to himself, “Doubt he’ll do that again.”
Otherwise you can think of “am I” & “are you” as similar to “ですね” in that it is usually rhetorical but it can imply a need for longer answer than just a “yeah” or “no”.
Examples of this use include, “I’m not an idiot, am I?”, “I’m not missing something, am I?”, & “You’re not getting it, are you?”
These can all be translated as, “何、全全分わかったない,” (since japanese loves to leave out topics if they are “self-evident”). It depends upon context.
The third of the examples, “…is they going,” is the easiest to correct. “Is” is for singulars, “they” is a plural, so you must use “are” (“are they” not “is they”).
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