I want to know the most appropriate word for these.
The context where these appears is that they are options users of a website can select from a menu to check the data of their weight for the certain range of time.
What's came up in my head is the following.
Is there right one in the above list?
Our rotary telephone is the least frequently used device in our house.
Ben moved most quietly as the boys walked down the darkened ally.
In the first sentence a superlative adverb is used with the (the least frequently), but in the second sentence it is used without (most quietly).
Can anyone explain the difference between the two?
At my English lesson the native English speaker couldn’t tell what is correct and promised to search it for us!
He told us that if James is one person then we should write
James' Book
but if we had many James he didn't know to tell us what to write...
Any suggestions?
Answer
This is something that's not 100% settled in English orthography, so it tends to be set down in usage guides. For example, here's what the Chicago Manual of Style (14th Ed) has to say:
"6.24 The general rule for the possessive of nouns covers most proper nouns, including most names ending in sibilants."
Examples they give include Kansas's, Ross's land, and Jones's reputation. Exceptions include Jesus' and Moses'.
By this, it would seem reasonable that possessive of the plural would be James', as with common nouns.
Note that this is not the entire story, but might (?) be the relevant bits.
Should there be an apostrophe in the sign "residents parking". A quick Google search suggests there shouldn't. But why not? Is "residents" an adjective?
Could you please tell me which sentence is correct?
Until now, I've only known that "many a + singular noun" takes a singular verb. Unfortunately, I've never heard about the correct pronoun for it.
Before I posted this question, I'd done some searching and this is the only one that I've found useful. But it seems to be a mere opinion, not an officially accepted usage or something like that. What I really want is a widely accepted usage.
Please enlighten me. Thanks in advance.
P/s: This is not a duplicate of this question. In other words, I've already known the use of "many" vs "many a". You can clearly see that my question isn't about "many" vs "many a". In addition to that, the link above refers to a question that doesn't even mention anything about "pronoun" while mine is mainly about it.
Answer
Neither of those sounds correct to me. Many a is a rather unusual construction: as you know, it takes a singular verb because each individual of the "many" acts or is acted on one at a time. However, when referring back to the many whatevers, we ordinarily use another "group of individuals" structure: either them all or each one rather than a simple they or it.
Some examples of what I mean:
Since those days I have had many a good dog at my side and many a good time beside them, and I have loved them all . . . . (A. Hunter Smith, A Life Afield, 2014)
Many a heart is aching, if you could read them all (Charles K. Harris, "After the Ball", 1891)
I've been to many a dentist and each one has been a exercise in some kind of torture. (Scott McIntyre, Facebook dentist review, 2016)
How many a year has passed and gone
Many a gamble has been lost and won
And many a road taken by many a first friend
And each one I've never seen again.
(Bob Dylan, "Bob Dylan's Dream", 1963)
So for your example, you would need either
It's not worth learning many a language when you haven't got the opportunity to use them all.
or
It's not worth learning many a language when you haven't got the opportunity to use each one.
Also, I will point out that (as these examples demonstrate) many a is a fairly poetical/literary phrase, and isn't very common in regular conversation. Use it mainly when you want to evoke a more lyrical feeling.
I have come across this sentence in a CNN report.
"We can't smell them because we have a measly five million sensors in our noses, but dogs have up to 300 million sensors in their noses."
"...a measly five million sensors..." ?
When can we use the article "a" before a plural noun? Could this be a mistake?
I would like to know if when I'm writing about a "user" (in the broad sense), what do I use? Example: "from the user’s perspective, saving a file is very easy; ? only needs..."
What is correct: she, he, she or he, or they.