Hi there,
Please help with the following option.
I caught (a fish/ fish) yesterday?
tks
simon
I think it's not entirely true. Indeed, no one would say "I caught fish yesterday" to mean "I caught some fish." But if they meant a repetitive action, it would be possible I think.A native speaker is not likely to say 'I caught fish yesterday'.
I'd say 'I caught some/a few/three fish yesterday.
It's still unlikely.I think it's not entirely true. Indeed, no one would say "I caught fish yesterday" to mean "I caught some fish." But if they meant a repetitive action, it would be possible I think.
I caught fish yesterday. ≈ I fished yesterday.
Right, it's not likely to appear in this context. Less controversial examples can be found here. Almost all of them have the same problem: "I caught fish" is not a standalone sentence there, but a part of a subordinate clause. But if we agree to give "yesterday" up, we obtain such results as:It's still unlikely.
A: What did you do yesterday?
B: I went fishing. Right
B: I caught fish. Bizarre, but not wrong.
(Sorry if I appear to be carping).
I thought it was not my plaice to draw attention to it.(I caught the "carping" reference, even if no one else did.)
I thought it was not my plaice to draw attention to it.
I agree with Rover a native speaker would most likely not say “I caught fish yesterday.” He would use an article or a quantifier like “a”, “some”,”2”, “quite a few” & etc before the noun.I caught a fish means you caught one fish.
A native speaker is not likely to say 'I caught fish yesterday'.
I'd say 'I caught some/a few/three fish yesterday.
Rover
It seems that enough people say "I caught fish yesterday" to make it normal, at least among anglers. So my argument that it's unusual is beginning to flounder.Coming from an area where fishing was the economic mainstay, I heard, "I caught fish" quite often. It may have been like this, "I caught fish south of the jetty last night." It was probably said this way to indicate that there were fish in a certain area and the fisherman didn't want to say how many fish he had caught.
The more common ways of expressing this would be, "I caught (a, some, a few, several, 14, etc.) fish last night."