[Grammar] Converting an affirmative sentence into an interrogative form

[bkpsusmitaa]

I had earlier discussed about my daughter's Board for 10+2 Education.

There was a question asked in her English exam : John has recruited 80 students.

The direction was to frame a question so as to get the underlined as answer.

Which one would be the correct answer?
(a) How many students has John recruited?
or
(b) How many students have John recruited?

Eager to hear from you.
Regards

 

[MikeNewYork]

Use "has". The subject is "John" (singular).

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello,

My teachers taught me to change a question back to its regular order (only for analysis, NOT for speaking or writing).

So we get:

1. John has recruited how many students?

2. John have recruited how many students?

You already know that "John" is the third person and thus requires the "s" form of the verb.

 

[bkpsusmitaa]

You know, my daughter knows the answer very well, but her teacher keeps confusing her. The person crossed the answer and didn't give her marks for it. How asinine the teachers could be! And the school is supposed to be very good, maybe one of the best one. I don't know what sort of nepotism bring such teachers within the recruitment framework.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Perhaps you could print out this thread and have your daughter show it to the teacher.

 

[bkpsusmitaa]

Yes, absolutely, you have given me more than I have asked for.
Thank you, Piscean, MikeNewYork, TheParser, thanks to all of you.
I will do more. This guy has been doing this for some months now. I had complained earlier. Now I am going to complain about the issue to the Management itself.
My regards.

P.S. look at the teacher's scholarly work in the form of his setting the paper, attached here.
Not only the above scholarly work, just observe the pic I have attached containing the teacher's work

(Q36) Then he takes an autorickshaw first and later walk to _____ school.
My daughter wrote 'his'. The teacher thought it was 'the' and crossed her answer. I would like to mention that Indians don't understand the use of 'the'. I asked my daughter. She said, there was no mention of the school that Babar reads in in the paragraph. Had there been a next sentence like Babar liked __ school, she would have written 'the' then.

For (Q37) my daughter wrote 'had expected' and 'had thought' and the teacher crossed them too. She explained that it was normal for people to expect and think before the match commended.

And to leave no doubts among the senior members, the name of this screwed college of India is posted.

 

[Tarheel]

Allow me to make some suggestions.

You know, my daughter knows the answers very well, but her teacher keeps confusing her. The person crossed out the answer and didn't give her marks for it. How asinine the teachers can be! And the school is supposed to be very good, maybe one of the best. I don't know what sort of nepotism brings such teachers within the recruitment framework.

Maybe the teacher is related to the principal. (Change "answers" back to "answer" if it's really only one thing, but I have a feeling it's not. In fact, they seem to get things wrong quite often.)

 

[Tarheel]

The word "homonym" is not a proper noun, and neither is either "clear quartz" or "agate".

:shock:

 

[Barb_D]

And 36 should be "walks" not "walk."

 

[Tarheel]

I can't make any sense out of "Then he takes an autorickshaw first". What does that mean?
:-?

 

[MikeNewYork]

It is obvious to me that the type of exam that requires the students to fill in blanks can have more than one correct answer. Evidently the teacher doesn't know that. The sad part is that experiences like this will undermine a student's faith in the system.

 

[bkpsusmitaa]

Thank you, Tarheel, Barb_D, Piscean, MikeNewYork, TheParser, et al, for your support. Tarheel, "answers" would be "answers". You will shortly notice why.

If you want to find flaws in the question paper itself, they will appear to be a training manual on how to commit errors.

I have snapped two pages and have highlighted them. I wonder as to when Africa became a country?

And Tarheel, autorickshaw is actually an Auto Rickshaw (wikipedia uses autorickshaw), a transportation vehicle. The sentence means that Babar rode an auto rickshaw while going to school. I don't know if 'takes' is used idiomatically in the English-speaking countries. Do you use 'Fetch a ride'?

Thank you for pointing out some issues in 'red'. "Answers" because he has incorrectly marked (crossed out) my daughter's paper in many places. "one of the best" will be "one of the best ones (Pre-Universtiy colleges)". What about "Can be"? Did you suggest, "could be"? and "crossed out" because "Cross Out" is a game? Are they problematic ones? Don't we use them in informal communication? They appeared alright to me!

You have no idea as to what goes by the name of English language in India! Dear MikeNewYork, you couldn't have been more correct! Alienation indeed! But the system doesn't collectively understand the rage of some individuals inside it.

My scanner is not working properly, otherwise, I would have treated you with crispier images. I apologise for the fuzzy pictures!

 

[Tarheel]

Thank you, Tarhill, Barb_D, Piscean, MikeNewYork, TheParser, et al, for your support. Tarhill, "answers" would be "answers". You will shortly notice why.

If you want to find flaws in the question paper itself, they will appear to be a training manual on how to commit errors.

Two things. First, that's a good one. Second, I wasn't looking for errors, but they screamed to be noticed.

I have snapped two pages and have highlighted them. I wonder as to when Africa became a country?

I don't know why some people think Africa is a country. It clearly is a continent. Kenya is a country. Ghana is a country. Nigeria is a country. And so on and so forth. But Africa is not a country. Not any more than Asia is.

And Tarhill, autorickshaw is actually an Auto Rickshaw (wikipedia uses autorickshaw), a transportation vehicle. The sentence means that Babar rode an auto rickshaw while going to school. I don't know if 'takes' is used idiomatically in the English-speaking countries. Do you use 'Fetch a ride'?

Your explanation makes perfect sense. However, the sentence is: "He took an autorickshaw first." My reaction is to ask where he took it, and what did he do second.

Thank you for pointing out some issues in 'red'. "Answers" because he has incorrectly marked (crossed out) my daughter's paper in many places. "one of the best" will be "one of the best ones (Pre-Universtiy colleges)". What about "Can be"? Did you suggest, "could be"? and "crossed out" because "Cross Out" is a game? Are they problematic ones? Don't we use them in informal communication? They appeared alright to me!

In AmE the teacher might cross out an incorrect answer. (Not cross.) In AmE we might say of an "A" student that he's one of the best or he's one of the best students. "One of the best ones" is, as far as I know, not used in AmE, but maybe it is used in Indian English. (For the rest I'll have to take another look at the previous post.)

 

[Tarheel]

One thing I can't understand is why they capitalize so many things that are clearly not proper nouns. (Just for the fun of it?)

 

[Tarheel]

You know, my daughter knows the answer very well, but her teacher keeps confusing her.

It's more than one, so "answers" is best.

The person crossed the answer and didn't give her marks for it.

I would say "crossed out", but maybe they say "crossed" in Indian English. (In AmE if you cross somebody you do something that gets them mad at you.)

How asinine the teachers could be!

The word "could" is past tense. Those teachers are asinine now--not in the past!

And the school is supposed to be very good, maybe one of the best one.

I would say: maybe one of the best or maybe one of the best schools. However, if it is one of the best schools, why are there so many errors on the exams?
:?:

 

[bkpsusmitaa]

Thank you, Tarheel, for an elaborate reply, rather, elaborate relies.

I can immediately see that you don't copy-paste texts

There is no Indian English, it is Inglish ;-) , a distorted form of the colonial British English. There are some who write really well in India, and I am not talking about Chetan Bhagat. Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth, ..., they write well, as did Nirad C. Chaudhary.

"Crossing answers" is incorrect and was an inadvertent typo. Actually, I don't restrict myself while writing. I check grammar and composition while editing. Since this is an informal forum I don't usually edit answers. I write like I talk. Maybe, I would have been better served by "strike off". But this is only a conversation between two individuals. So my writing should reflect the natural flow of conversation.

also, when I think of grammar while writing lose clue. So I let my subconscious do the grammar part while I am writing. Then, depending upon the situation, formal or informal, I try to edit paragraphs to maintain a structural integrity.

Capitalisation is the teacher's innovation.

This is not the first time the errors have happened. There is a conversation I began regarding it's I or it's me. Then too, my daughter's marks were incorrectly deducted. I had warned the school regarding these incidents. But they are too ignorant to understand the nitty-gritty.

This time I am really angry.

In India, there is a parallel education system called private tutorials, other than the normal school education. Since school education is mostly pathetic, private tutors have a field day if they are really good. The college has some of the best tutors in Mathematics, Biology, Physics and Chemistry. Since the standard of english is generally poor in our area, it is very difficult to come across a modest teacher.

So now that the issue is crystal clear, shall we proceed to close this thread? I thank you all for the support you have extended. Have a good day!