Are the answers given correct?

Hi teachers,
According to this question, 'How many of the man's ribs are fractured?' Are both answers correct?
a) Two ribs are.
b) Two of his ribs are.

Thanks in advance.

learning54 said:

Hi teachers,
According to this question, 'How many of the man's ribs are fractured?' Are both answers correct?
a) Two ribs are.
b) Two of his ribs are.

Thanks in advance.

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Hmmm, I'm inclined to say no. I can't quite put my finger on it, but ending the sentence with "are" is grating on me, although I have used that ending in one of my suggested replies. In response to the question "How many of the man's ribs are fractured?", I would expect:

- Two.
- Two of them are.
- Two of his ribs are fractured.
- Two of the man's ribs are fractured.

Hi,
Thank you for your reply.
In this answer 'Two of them are', 'them' is an object pronoun. I've always thought that when you have an object pronoun in a sentence, you should also have a subject pronoun in it, and that's not always true, like in this case.

learning54 said:

I've always thought that when you have an object pronoun in a sentence, you should also have a subject pronoun in it

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I don't know where you got that strange idea.

The Harry Potter novels are very popular, but some people don't like them.

5jj said:

The Harry Potter novels are very popular, but some people don't like them.

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Hi,
Isn't 'some people' the subject? If I wish to substitude it with 'they' I could do it. Something that I can't do with my original sentence.

learning54 said:

Hi,
Isn't 'some people' the subject? If I wish to substitude it with 'they' I could do it.

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"Some people" is the subject but you said you thought there had to be a subject pronoun.

Saying "The Harry Potter novels are very popular but they don't like them" doesn't mean the same thing at all.

emsr2d2 said:

"Some people" is the subject but you said you thought there had to be a subject pronoun.

Saying "The Harry Potter novels are very popular but they don't like them" doesn't mean the same thing at all.

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Hi,
Sorry, want I wanted to mean is that whenever you have an 'object' or an 'object pronoun' in a sentence you should have a 'subject' or a 'subject pronoun' in that sentence. Isn't that so?

tzfujimino said:

Hi!
If you could give us some examples based on your idea, perhaps we might be able to sort out your problem. :-D

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Hi,
Kate loves Robert. (She loves him.)
Kate always helps Robert. (She always helps him.)
Kate and Robert invited Sharon to the movies. (They invited her to the movies.)
Etc

learning54 said:

Hi,
Sorry, want I wanted to mean is that whenever you have an 'object' or an 'object pronoun' in a sentence you should have a 'subject' or a 'subject pronoun' in that sentence. Isn't that so?

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Well, as an object, whether noun or pronoun, is the object of something, normally a verb or preposition, and as a complete sentence needs a subject (which, with the imperative form of the verb may be implied), then the answer to your question has to be 'yes'. It doesn't seem to be very helpful though. It's covered by 'All complete sentences contain a subject'.

5jj said:

Well, as an object, whether noun or pronoun, is the object of something, normally a verb or preposition, and as a complete sentence needs a subject (which, with the imperative form of the verb may be implied), then the answer to your question has to be 'yes'.

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According to this question, 'How many of the man's ribs are fractured?'
This is a possible answer, 'Two of them are'.
If 'them' is the 'object', where is the subject? Or in this case, 'Two of them' is the subject itself. If that is so, something that I believe, then wich part of speech is 'them'?

It doesn't seem to be very helpful though. It's covered by 'All complete sentences contain a subject'.

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I completely agree with you, but not all complete sentences contain an object pro(noun). So, my idea is whenever you have an object pro(noun) in a sentence you should have a subject pro(noun). Right?

learning54 said:

So, my idea is whenever you have an object pro(noun) in a sentence you should have a subject pro(noun). Right?

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Whenever you have anything in a complete sentence, you have a subject (which need not necessarily be a noun or pronoun), so I simply do not see the need for singling out objects for special mention.

With imperatives, there is normally no subject except through implication.

Kate loves him. Kate always helps him. Kate and Robert invited her to the movies.Do(Have) you find(found) them unnatural?

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Hi doctor,
Not at all, as long as we know who is the object of the sentence.

Tdol said:

With imperatives, there is normally no subject except through implication.

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As I suggested in post #10.

5jj said:

I simply do not see the need for singling out objects for special mention.

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Hi,
It is just for beginners students. The exercise goes like this, I underlined them the subject pro(noun) in a sentence and they have to to look for the object pro(noun), if there's one and viceversa. That's all.

learning54 said:

Hi,

It is just for beginner[STRIKE]s[/STRIKE] students. The exercise goes like this: I underlined [STRIKE]them[/STRIKE] the subject pro(noun) in a sentence for them and they have to to look for the object pro(noun), if [STRIKE]there's[/STRIKE] there is one and vice versa (two words). That's all.

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I think the relevant part of your text above is "if there is one". If your exercise requires that you underline a subject pronoun, then you will have to make sure you only use sentences which contain one.

Please teachers, could you answer me this one?
According to this question, 'How many of the man's ribs are fractured?'
This is a possible answer, 'Two of them are'.
If 'them' is the 'object', where is the subject? On a second thought, 'Two of them' is the subject itself. If that is so, something that I believe, then wich part of speech is 'them'?

learning54 said:

Please teachers, could you answer me this one?
According to this question, 'How many of the man's ribs are fractured?'
This is a possible answer, 'Two of them are'.
If 'them' is the 'object', where is the subject? On [STRIKE]a[/STRIKE] second thoughts, 'Two of them' is the subject itself. If that is so, something that I believe, then which part of speech is 'them'?

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'Them' is an object pronoun. It is the object of the preposition 'of'

5jj said:

'Them' is an object pronoun. It is the object of the preposition 'of'

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Thank you! So which part of speech is 'two' then?

The most straighforward answer is that it's a number.