[Grammar] Debt

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Does the uncountable "debt" have a meaning of all "debts" owed by a person/entity?
 

emsr2d2

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Does the uncountable "debt" have a meaning of all "debts" owed by a person/entity?

He's in serious debt = he owes a lot of money. That could be made up of one large debt or lots of little debts but as a general description of his financial situation, the uncountable "debt" will suffice.
 
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So, one could uncountably "have debt" to pay off?
 
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Is "He has too much debt to pay off" acceptable?
 

emsr2d2

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So then, "He has debt to pay off" could be acceptable by extension?
 

Barb_D

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Acceptable, I'd say, but you're much more likley to hear it with a quanitifer: He has some/very little/a lot of/so much debt.
 

emsr2d2

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Acceptable, I'd say, but you're much more likley to hear it with a quanitifer: He has some/very little/a lot of/so much debt.

What's a "quanitifer"?!! :-D Actually, I love it as a word. I'm going to invent a definition for it and start using it.
 

Barb_D

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Crap! Ever since I changed browsers, I lost my little built-in spell checker. I need to remember to always use that functionality on this site itself. Without those little red lines, I'm lost!!

Quantifier. Sorry!
 

5jj

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Quantifier. Sorry!
Crap!

I was looking forward to reading emsr2d2's definition so that I could start using the much nicer quanitifer.
 
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From a Businessweek magazine article: "[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Times,Serif]Toshiba Corp., for instance, has debt equal to 1.9 times equity already."


[/FONT]
 

5jj

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From a Businessweek magazine article: "[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Times,Serif]Toshiba Corp., for instance, has debt equal to 1.9 times equity already."[/FONT]
As Barb said in post #8, it's acceptable.
 
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