every plate

By instinct, when I say, "Every plate was broken."
How would you think of the plates?
Would you think of the plates as general or specific?

Thank you in advance.

panicmonger said:

By instinct, when I say, "Every plate was broken."
How would you think of the plates?
Would you think of the plates as general or specific?

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

I am not sure I fully understand what you want. A context is needed to provide meaning.

Every indicates that all the plates in a known group or collection of plates was broken. It means the same as all of the plates.

Without every, the meaning could be general.

I hope this helps.
Stephen
www.ieltsonly.co.uk

panicmonger said:

By instinct, when I say, "Every plate was broken."
How would you think of the plates?
Would you think of the plates as general or specific?

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

I don't understand the question at all. If you say something happened to 'every' <noun>, you can not fail to be specific - the same thing happened to each specific one (that's what 'every' means in this context).

And whose instinct are we talking about? Do you mean 'By instinct, when I say, "Every plate was broken," how...'? If 'How' really does start a new sentence, where is the main verb in the first sentence?


b

***Not a teacher***

"All the plates were broken" in my opinion treats the plates as a whole group.

"Every plate was broken" draws more attention to each individual plate

"Every one of the plates was..."
"Every single plate was...."
These expressions bring even more emphasis to the plates individually.

Is this what you mean?

Ade

azcl said:

***Not a teacher***

"All the plates were broken" in my opinion treats the plates as a whole group.

"Every plate was broken" draws more attention to each individual plate

"Every one of the plates was..."
"Every single plate was...."
These expressions bring even more emphasis to the plates individually.

Is this what you mean?

Ade

Click to expand...

Thank you. I think you have answered my question.
Because in your reply, you say 'every plate' = 'all of the plates'.
The plates refer to a specific group of plates, not all the plates in the world, so does 'every plate'.

BobK said:

I don't understand the question at all. If you say something happened to 'every' <noun>, you can not fail to be specific - the same thing happened to each specific one (that's what 'every' means in this context).

And whose instinct are we talking about? Do you mean 'By instinct, when I say, "Every plate was broken," how...'? If 'How' really does start a new sentence, where is the main verb in the first sentence?
b

Click to expand...

Sorry for my unclear question.
I think azcl has answered my question already.
Thank you.