Lacierva
New member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2020
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- Taiwan
- Current Location
- Taiwan
I have a textbook that has few collocations in the unit, such as sing a song, write a story, sing a song, ride a bike, fly a kite, paint a picture, play the violin.
The arrangement of the sentence made me a bit confused.
The followings are some examples of the sentences from the textbook.
I can sing a song.
I can paint a picture.
I can fly a kite.
I can play the violin.
Note: Only one person do the activity in the picture of each collocation here, but in the next page, sentences made with "They" are given.
They can sing songs.
They can paint pictures.
They can write stories.
The can play violin. (no plural here)
Note: In the picture, two people are doing the same activity, namely, one person read a book and another person read a book as well, so there are actually two books in the picture.
I found these are very confusing and here are my questions:
(1)
I personally think both "I can sing a song." and "I can sing songs." are grammatically correct.
I also think "They can paint a picture." and "They can paint pictures." are correct.
But why the text book use "I can sing a song." instead of "I can sing songs"; use "They can paint pictures" instead of "They can paint a picture."?????
Is it because the quantities of the stuff that people use in the pictures are different?
If two people paint a picture together, it would be "they can paint a picture"???
But I believe this unit focus on one's ability. :roll:
(2)
If the two people have their own violins , why can't we say "They can play the violins."???
Because "They can read books.", "They can paint pictures." and "They can play the violin." are on the same page, it can be very disturbing.
These are quite simple sentences, but really make me headache. LOL
Thank you all in advance.
The arrangement of the sentence made me a bit confused.
The followings are some examples of the sentences from the textbook.
I can sing a song.
I can paint a picture.
I can fly a kite.
I can play the violin.
Note: Only one person do the activity in the picture of each collocation here, but in the next page, sentences made with "They" are given.
They can sing songs.
They can paint pictures.
They can write stories.
The can play violin. (no plural here)
Note: In the picture, two people are doing the same activity, namely, one person read a book and another person read a book as well, so there are actually two books in the picture.
I found these are very confusing and here are my questions:
(1)
I personally think both "I can sing a song." and "I can sing songs." are grammatically correct.
I also think "They can paint a picture." and "They can paint pictures." are correct.
But why the text book use "I can sing a song." instead of "I can sing songs"; use "They can paint pictures" instead of "They can paint a picture."?????
Is it because the quantities of the stuff that people use in the pictures are different?
If two people paint a picture together, it would be "they can paint a picture"???
But I believe this unit focus on one's ability. :roll:
(2)
If the two people have their own violins , why can't we say "They can play the violins."???
Because "They can read books.", "They can paint pictures." and "They can play the violin." are on the same page, it can be very disturbing.
These are quite simple sentences, but really make me headache. LOL
Thank you all in advance.
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