[General] Which one is correct?

[kyawwin]

(1) Tom and Peter played the guitar.
(2) Tom and Peter played the guitars.
(3) Tom and Peter played guitars.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Assuming there were more than one guitar, I would choose 3.

 

[tedmc]

I think 1 is also OK. It refers to having a specific musical skill rather than stating something is done/happened.

https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/110450-quot-The-quot-before-musical-instruments

 

[Rover_KE]

Marco, please read this extract from the Posting Guidelines:


You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly in your post. Please note, all posts are moderated by our in-house language experts, so make sure your suggestions, help, and advice provide the kind of information an international language teacher would offer. If not, and your posts do not contribute to the topic in a positive way, they will be subject to deletion.

 

[Rover_KE]

kyawwin, for the second time, please note that a better title would have been the guitar/the guitars/guitars.

Extract from the Posting Guidelines:

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[Marco_BR]

Rover_KE, I ask your pardon for my mistake.
I really need to pay more attention to the rules.
This website is very helpful and I enjoy it so much.
I am sorry again.
Thank you!

 

[bhaisahab]

In your signature line, Marco, you should replace "Scotch" with "Scots" or "Scottish". "Scotch" is whisky.

 

[Marco_BR]

Thank you very much, bhaisahab!
I took this signature from "Great tales of terror and the supernatural", an old collection of classic tales, a book that I proudly have in my shelf.
I also see "Old Scottish saying" in the internet, is that correct?
Thank you again.

 

[Eckaslike]

In British English:

(1) Tom and Peter played the guitar.
a. There was one musical instrument that T and P played on some past occasion (s), not simultaneously.
b. T and P had the musical ability but, as Ted suggested, they did not actually perform.

(2) Tom and Peter played the guitars.
There were two guitars and T and P played one each on some occasion(s) in the past.

(3) Tom and Peter played guitars.
There is no suggestion as to how many guitars were available. T and P played one each on some occasion(s) in the past

Then there is the highly unusual 1 c. , where there was one guitar played simultaneously by two people, often called "four hands guitar".
However, as Piscean has stated, this is not the usual meaning of sentence 1.

https://youtu.be/D0KyTOGGa2Q

 

[Eckaslike]

I also see "Old Scottish saying" in the internet, is that correct?

"From ghouls and ghosts and long-legged beasts and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord deliver us!"

If that is, or was, well known and well used you can call it "a saying", or in this case "an old Scottish saying". However, given the ending "Good Lord deliver us", for me, the word "invocation" works better. This is because the sentence is calling upon (invoking) God's help to protect, or save, you from the monsters, spirits and the unknown things that go bump in the night.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/invocation

 

[Johnyxxx]

I do not have the book but I can proudly say I have read almost all the stories included in it. The old florid prose of Blackwood or de la Mare was sometimes hard to follow so I had to ask for help here.

 

[Marco_BR]

Thank you Eckaslike, I also think that "Invocation" is more appropriate.
That is true Johnyxxx. There is no translation of this book to portuguese, so I had to take the original. However, always that I can read the original, it is better.