I don't like kids with fat face.

[tufguy]

1) I don't like kids with fat face.

Should I be saying "I don't like kids with fat faces" instead?

2) We have received the payment for the claims that we sent to the insurance company.

Should I be saying "We have received payments for the claims that we sent to the insurance company" instead?


I get confused in these kinds of sentences where I am refering to a group of people or something else that share similar attributes like "Fat face". I get confused thinking that I am talking about more than one person or thing so should I be using singular or plural when I talk about that particular thing(like payment and fat face in my examples)? Should I turn them to plural "fat faces" and "payments"?

Please advise me on this.

 

[Tarheel]

For the first one say:

I don't like kids with fat faces.

For the second one, you don't need the definite article (the) before payment.

 

[Phaedrus]

1) I don't like kids with fat face.

That sentence would work if Fat Face were somebody's derogatory nickname. It would mean:

It don't like [for] kids [to be] with Fat Face. :-D

For the meaning you want, I recommend:

I don't like fat-faced kids.

 

[emsr2d2]

Should I be saying "I don't like kids with fat faces" instead?

You shouldn't be saying anything like this at all. It's very rude to decide whether you like someone or not based on their appearance/weight etc.

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes, tufguy, that's a very unpleasant example you've chosen. Children can't help the shape of their faces and I hope you don't really mean that.

We wouldn't have complained if you'd said 'I don't like men with nose rings or facial tattoos'.

 

[teechar]

You're never too far away from controversy, tufguy, are you?

 

[Tdol]

1) I don't like kids with fat face.

Should I be saying "I don't like kids with fat faces" instead?

Faces is correct, but commenting on people's weight is regarded by many as body shaming. Some people would say that the sentence is impolite.

 

[GoesStation]

My next-door neighbor has a genetic facial deformity. She honestly looks rather hideous. She's a kind, gracious person who's been a good neighbor for twenty years. She used to hang a bag of fresh Araucana eggs for us on the fence every week or so when her hens were laying. I can't imagine thinking I'd dislike her simply because she's unappealing to look at.

 

[Phaedrus]

Faces is correct, but commenting on people's weight is regarded by many as body shaming.

Another correct, though still impolite, option (We oughtn't to persecute the fat-faced amongst us) is to insert the missing indefinite article:

I don't like kids with a fat face.

It's not the grammar that is impolite, of course. Compare:

I like cars with a sunroof.

Unlike I like cars with sunroofs, which could in theory refer to cars that have more than one sunroof, I like cars with a sunroof is unambiguous.

 

[tufguy]

You shouldn't be saying anything like this at all. It's very rude to decide whether you like someone or not based on their appearance/weight etc.

It was just a joke. I don't know why everyone gets so serious �� about everything I write. It was just a joke.

 

[tufguy]

For the first one say:

I don't like kids with fat faces.

For the second one, you don't need the definite article (the) before payment.

Okay, so I can either say "I don't like kids with fat faces" or "I don't like kids with a fat face" and for the second one I can say "I didn't receive payment for ten claims that were sent to you". Are these correct?

The first one was part of a joke. Please don't take it seriously.

 

[tufguy]

You're never too far away from controversy, tufguy, are you?

It was a joke.

 

[Tarheel]

Okay, so I can either say "I don't like kids with fat faces"

Yes.

or "I don't like kids with a fat face"

No.

and for the second one I can say "I didn't receive payment for ten claims that were sent to you".

Yes.


Are these correct?

The first one was part of a joke. Please don't take it seriously.

OK.

 

[Tdol]

It was a joke.

I read Milan Kundera's book The Joke in my early twenties. The political world it described was incomprehensible to me then. It is much closer to home now.

 

[Rover_KE]

We're not used to you making jokes, tufguy. Please don't.

 

[teechar]

It was a joke.

Jokes can be distasteful. That was a case in point. As Rover_KE has now clearly told you: don't do it again.

 

[emsr2d2]

If you want to tell us a joke, post it in the Fun and Games sub-section. If you want help with English, post here but give us the entire context - in this case, you should have said in post #1 that the line you asked us about was part of a joke (indeed, you could have give us the entire joke). At least we would have known that you weren't seriously saying that you don't like kids with fat faces.

 

[Phaedrus]

It's interesting that, without the indefinite article (viz., the title of this thread), "fat face" could be understood as a temporary medical condition:

He got fat face from the fight. I don't like kids with fat face. The swelling looks terrible and takes a long time to go away.

 

[jutfrank]

Language can be used to say nice things about people and to say some very horrible, offensive, and hurtful things too. I don't think it's up to us to tell people how they should behave towards other people outside of the forum. I think our role here is limited to making learners aware of the possible effects of what they say, and to equip them with the linguistic skills to effectively use language in any way they wish. To me, it was pretty clear that tufguy wanted to say something that was deliberately derogatory.

 

[emsr2d2]

To me, it was pretty clear that tufguy wanted to say something that was deliberately derogatory.

That's what I thought too. I think, from a cultural point of view, it's not unreasonable to point out that that isn't an acceptable thing to say in BrE.