Does the hotel which you stayed in last week offer (a) good service(s)?

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z7655431

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a. Does the hotel which you stayed in last week offer good service?
b. Does the hotel which you stayed in last week offer a good service?
c. Does the hotel which you stayed in last week offer good services?

Are they all correct? Which do you prefer? Why? Thanks!
 

Charlie Bernstein

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a. Does the hotel which you stayed in last week offer good service?
b. Does the hotel which you stayed in last week offer a good service?
c. Does the hotel which you stayed in last week offer good services?

Are they all correct? Which do you prefer? Why? Thanks!

A is right. Service is used here as a general concept, not as a question about any specific services, so no article is needed. (A grammarian can explain that one better than I can.)

B is wrong because hotels offer more than one service.

C is right because hotels offer more than one service.

In American English, we would not say "which." We would either say "that" or (more commonly) not use either word: "Does the hotel you stayed at. . . ."

I would probably say: "Does the hotel you stayed at last week have good service?" Or "How was the service at the hotel you stayed at last week?"
 

z7655431

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A is right. Service is used here as a general concept, not as a question about any specific services, so no article is needed. (A grammarian can explain that one better than I can.)

B is wrong because hotels offer more than one service.

C is right because hotels offer more than one service.

In American English, we would not say "which." We would either say "that" or (more commonly) not use either word: "Does the hotel you stayed at. . . ."

I would probably say: "Does the hotel you stayed at last week have good service?" Or "How was the service at the hotel you stayed at last week?"

So,
1. Does the hotel you stayed in last week offer good service?
2. Does the hotel you stayed at last week have good service?
You prefer sentence 2, but sentence 1 is still correct, right? And I notice that you changed the preposition "in" to "at". Is "in" incorrect? Why do you use "at" not "in"?
 

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So,
1. Does the hotel you stayed in last week offer good service?
2. Does the hotel you stayed at last week have good service?
You prefer sentence 2, but sentence 1 is still correct, right? And I notice that you changed the preposition "in" to "at". Is "in" incorrect? Why do you use "at" not "in"?

I wouldn't say that in​ is incorrect, but only at is really natural.
 

Charlie Bernstein

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So,
1. Does the hotel you stayed in last week offer good service?
2. Does the hotel you stayed at last week have good service?
You prefer sentence 2, but sentence 1 is still correct, right? And I notice that you changed the preposition "in" to "at". Is "in" incorrect? Why do you use "at" not "in"?

They're both fine. I didn't even realize that I had changed it!

But you're right, I would usually say "at."
 

Jpking

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A is correct if the questioner had the general service of the hotel in mind. And I still think if he had said 'services,' he would still have been right.


B
is correct in the context of its usage. The questioner had the general service rendered and not a specific one like laundry service in mind.


C
is also correct. As far as I can see, it doesn't violate the rule of contextual appraisal and grammatical structure. Here, the questioner had all the possible services a hotel could offer.
And the person that was asked the question could have replied,

' Yes it does, only that it lacks good laundry service.

So, here is my submission: all are correct within their context.

I'm not a teacher, am just a Writer who is in love with the English language. But the way, any gaffe I might have made in the attempt of giving an answer to the above question, if shown to me will be highly welcome. Thanks:-D
 

Charlie Bernstein

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A is correct if the questioner had the general service of the hotel in mind. And I still think if he had said 'services,' he would still have been right.


B
is correct in the context of its usage. The questioner had the general service rendered and not a specific one like laundry service in mind.


C
is also correct. As far as I can see, it doesn't violate the rule of contextual appraisal and grammatical structure. Here, the questioner had all the possible services a hotel could offer.
And the person that was asked the question could have replied,

' Yes it does, only that it lacks good laundry service.

So, here is my submission: all are correct within their context.

I'm not a teacher, am just a writer who is in love with the English language. By the way, any mistake (or error0 I might have made in the attempt to give an answer to the above question, if shown to me, will be highly welcome. Thanks!:-D

B is grammatical, but it doesn't make much sense. If the speaker wants to know about one specific service, the speaker would name it, not say "a service."

So it's wrong. It isn't likely that someone would say it. It's not natural.
 

Jpking

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Thank you so much for the corections (most are due to my keyboard prediction mode��:-:-D I do appreciate them. I agree with you. That's why I was careful to say 'in context.' It's absolutely unnatural like you said.:up:
 
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jutfrank

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Hi Jpking
But the way, any gaffe I might have made [...] will be highly welcome.

Gaffe is not a good choice of vocab for this use. You could say errors or mistakes.

And of course you mean By the way.
 
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