In some sense / in some senses

[Jiayun]

Hi all,

I think the word “sense” should be in its plural form in the sentence “in some senses, humans are aliens on Earth”. But then there seems to be an idiom “talk some sense into someone” where sense is in its singular form. So I got confused. What’s your take on this?

 

[jutfrank]

I think you may be confusing different senses of the word sense. It's not clear from your post which one you mean.

In your example, it seems that in some senses is a synonym of in some ways. If you mean there is more than one way, then it's correct to use the plural word senses.

If you don't mean to say in some ways, could you explain a little more what you mean to say?

 

[Jiayun]

I think my confusion comes from the word "some" as I thought the noun follow it should be in plural form. Then I checked the dictionary and found that singular noun could be used after "some". Here is the explanation of the Cambridge dictionary:

We can use this strong form to refer to someone or something particular but unknown, especially with singular countable nouns:

There must be some way of opening this printer!
​

Some idiot driver crashed into the back of me.

I guess that also explains why the singular "sense" is used in the phrase "talk some sense into someone".
​

I think you may be confusing different senses of the word sense. It's not clear from your post which one you mean.

In your example, it seems that in some senses is a synonym of in some ways. If you mean there is more than one way, then it's correct to use the plural word senses.

If you don't mean to say in some ways, could you explain a little more what you mean to say?

 

[tedmc]

I think my confusion comes from the word "some" as I thought the noun following it should be in the plural form. Then I checked the dictionary and found that singular noun could be used after "some". Here is the explanation of the Cambridge dictionary:

We can use this strong form to refer to someone or something particular but unknown, especially with singular countable nouns:

There must be some way of opening this printer!
​

Some idiot driver crashed into the back of me.

I guess that also explains why the singular "sense" is used in the phrase "talk some sense into someone".
​

You are right in the above. I find your earlier sentence a bit unnatural.

In some senses, humans are aliens on Earth.

I would use in some ways/respect, as jutfrank suggested. To me, the plural "senses" usually refers to the physical human senses of perception. Or "come to someone's senses" which means " come to realization".

 

[jutfrank]

I think my confusion comes from the word "some" as I thought the noun follow it should be in plural form. Then I checked the dictionary and found that singular noun could be used after "some".

The word some is very commonly used before uncountable nouns (which are always singular) as well as plural nouns.

Here is the explanation of the Cambridge dictionary:

We can use this strong form to refer to someone or something particular but unknown, especially with singular countable nouns:

There must be some way of opening this printer!
​

Some idiot driver crashed into the back of me.

I guess that also explains why the singular "sense" is used in the phrase "talk some sense into someone".
​

No, that's different. The dictionary is explaining that some can sometimes also be used with countable nouns. In the phrase talk some sense into someone, sense is uncountable.