my books

[navi tasan]

1-My books were stolen.
2-Someone stole my books.
3-I lost my books.

Do any of these imply that all of my books were stolen/I lost all of my books (or all of the books that were with me at the time)?

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[emsr2d2]

#3 does not necessarily mean they were stolen. I would assume that you had dropped them or accidentally left them somewhere and then couldn't find them any more. With #1 and #2, they could have been stolen from anywhere, not necessarily directly from you.

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you very much Emsr2d2.

Yes. The sentences do not have the same meaning. I just wanted to see if the three statements applies to all my books, or all of the ones I had with me.
In other words, would one use statements '1' and '2' if only some of his or her books were stolen and would one use '3' if only some of their books were lost?


Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

The use of "my books" and not "some of my books" would imply that you're talking about all of them.

However, in the real world, most people who own books have quite a few of them. I think it very unlikely that all of someone's books would be stolen at once, so I would assume that only some of them had been stolen.

This would be different if you were talking about a particular situation, for example away from home, and you were referring not to all the books you own but all the books that you had with you at the time.

 

[Tdol]

They could imply all the books you had with you, but if you want to put the matter beyond doubt, you could always add all.

 

[Odessa Dawn]

I just wanted to see if the three statements apply[STRIKE]ies[/STRIKE] to all my books, or all of the ones I had with me.

***NOT A TEACHER***

 

[Odessa Dawn]

It should be 'applies' instead of 'applyies'.

It is preceded by a plural subject. Why "applies"?

 

[Matthew Wai]

Sorry, there was misunderstanding.
I meant the correct spelling should be 'applies' instead of 'applyies'.
I didn't mean 'applies' should be used after a plural subject, which should be followed by 'apply'.

And sorry again, I didn't notice 'ies' had already been crossed out, the line is too thin and my eyesight is too bad.

Not a teacher.

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you all very much and my apologies for the mistake.
It should be 'apply'.

Gratefully,
Navi.