What’s the singular form of the word species? Let’s say for example, that I want to say the following:
There are many different species of snake around the world.
That’s OK, I’m referring to multiple species so of course it has to be plural. But what if I want to be more specific, and say something like:
Well, never, of course. But these two words are quite often confused by English-language learners. It makes sense really. The two words obviously sound similar, and that’s particularly true for speakers of languages which don’t make such a distinction between the ch (/ʧ/) and k (/k/) sounds. And of course it’s logical to create an association between the two things: where else are you going to keep your chicken?
I had a strange experience recently on, I believe, Facebook. It might have been Twitter, but I think it was Facebook. Having a cursory pass through my newsfeed, something caught my eye. It was a headline for a fairly typical slightly clickbaity article. It featured a young woman, presumably a model or actress, standing next to a billboard on which she featured. The headline was a quote from her, something like this:
I saw the following today, on the internet, on Reddit, while taking a brief pause from work:
Which of the following is correct:
It’s ok! None of the coffee is on my shirt!
I called the guys, and none of them is coming.
I called the guys, and none of them are coming.
(Oh man, usually when he asks Which one is correct? they’re all correct and he expects us to amazed. Watch)
Well, you might actually be amazed to find out that they’re all correct!
(*sigh* See?)
But why are they all correct?
We all get into routines, often continuing with them long after we’ve realised any original context for them has disappeared. Teachers for some reason seem to be a little more prone to getting into bad habits than other people.
Ok, I told you yesterday that there was one more use of commas I’d save till today. Have a look at the sentences below, and tell me which of the two people quoted has only one brother:
My brother who works in the bank visited today.
My brother, who works in the bank, visited today.
If you said the second person only has one brother, you’re correct! But how did you know?
English-Language Thoughts 