烦人语法：My favorite fruit is/are apple(s)?
2012-03-16 12:33阅读：
susie1611 (Native
language-Hungarian- Hungary)
...favourite
fruit(s) is/are...
1. My favourite fruit is apples and bananas.
2. My favourite fruit are apples and bananas.
3. My favourite fruits are apples and bananas.
which is (in)correct , which would be most natural?
And would this be correct:
4. My favourite fruit is apples.
Somehow apple or banana in the singular doesn't sound OK to me in
either case, but please correct me there too if it's not so.
Thanks in advance!!
10th July 2009, 10:18
PM
回复: Jabberwock Location,California,
USA,Native language,English - United Sta
tes Age 40 Re: favourite fruit(s) is/are...
Susie,
For 1 through 3, you are speaking of two items, or two fruits so
the correct one would be:
3. My favourite fruits are apples and bananas.
is = singluar
are = plural
Yes, My favourite fruit is apples is
correct. Furthermore the following is also
acceptable:
My favourite fruit
are apples.
Perhaps the grammatically correct way of
saying both are:
My favourite
fruit is the apple.
My favourite fruits are the apples.
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10th July 2009, 10:22
PM #3
Old Novice ,
Senior Member
,Location,Massachusetts ,Native language ,USA, English
- Age ,65
Re: favourite fruit(s) is/are...
Originally Posted by susie1611
1. My favourite fruit is apples and bananas. 
2. My favourite fruit are apples and bananas.
3. My favourite fruits are apples and bananas. 
which is (in)correct , which would be most natural?
And would this be correct:
4. My favourite fruit is apples.
Somehow apple or banana in the singular doesn't sound OK to me in
either case, but please correct me there too if it's not so.
Thanks in advance!!
1 and 2 are incorrect, 3 and 4 correct. In the case of number 4,
'apples' in the plural and without an article represents the
generic fruit. 'My favorite fruit is an apple' would refer to a
particular apple, and 'my favorite fruit is apple' is simply never
used (although I can't give you a grammatical explanation of
why).
Edit: I see Jabberwock beat me to most of this. However, I don't
think I'd ever use 'my favourite fruits are THE apples' by itself.
To my ear, 'the apple' and 'apples' are both acceptable generic
terms but I'd expect 'the apples' to be modified by something else:
'My favorite fruits are the apples from Fred's farm.'
Last edited by Old Novice; 10th July 2009 at
10:28 PM.
10th July 2009, 11:08
PM #4
entangledbank Senior
Member ,Location,London,Native language ,English - Southern
England
- Posts 6,880
Re: favourite fruit(s) is/are...
2 is also correct for me, and in fact 'fruit are' is
rather more natural than 'fruits are'. Adding the '-s' onto the
plural seems to emphasize a variety of kinds (like 'fishes' for
'fish'). I would have said the normal plural of 'fruit' was
unchanged 'fruit', but evidently some commenters here don't feel
that. I wonder if there's a dialect difference?
Googling for 'fruit are' shows a number of examples of plural use
on the first page:
Why some fruit are long (The Daily Telegraph, so it's
standard BrE at least)
Berry fruit are leader of sale in dutch supermarkets
Why fruit are groovy (Nature magazine, so it's used in
scientific writing too)
10th July 2009, 11:16
PM #6
Loob Re: favourite fruit(s)
is/are...
My favourite fruit ... is apples.
I lie, actually.
My favourite fruits are bananas.
The person of the verb depends on whether we're
using a singular collective noun or a plural.
In these shoes?
1st October 2011, 12:58
AM #9
suzi br ,Location ,Stoke on
Trent ,Native language England and English
Re: favourite fruit(s) is/are...
I don't think there is a grammar point, simply because
you don't have to say My favourite is appleS, My favourite fruit is apple works fine too, and so
it would be fine for mangoes as a plural, I reckon.
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1462791
