English Language Learners

My father-in-law took me to another city to get finger printed for the DHS. I asked him if he wanted to come into the building with me to get finger printed, and he said "I can do that, but I don't have to" What does it mean???

phrase-usage

Aww... one downvote, one VTC!

Cerberus

@DamkerngT. I'm sure it can!

@DamkerngT. Is it something you'd care to talk about? Or maybe some other time?

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus Don't worry. It's not that big of a deal. It's my own burden anyway. But thanks!

Damkerng T.

2:52 PM

@Cerberus Man_From_India asked me this in another room:

in Language Overflow (Experimental), 3 hours ago, by Man_From_India

there is another confusion. "fruit" is uncountable and countable. i have observed that BrE use it as uncountable and AmE use it both way generally. So is it also correct to say in AmE "live on fruit(s) and vegetables". Am i right?

I don't have any good answer, so I think maybe you can help us with this fruit thing. :-)

Cerberus

@DamkerngT. OK then, I hope this burden will soon be reduced, then.

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus Thank you very much.

Cerberus

@DamkerngT. I would say the collective noun is generally preferred.

I don't know about America.

Damkerng T.

So, fruits and vegetables would sound awkward in BrE, I guess?

Cerberus

I would say pieces of fruit for a basket of apples, and fruits for different kinds of fruit.

Damkerng T.

2:54 PM

nods -- Like fish.

Cerberus

I can't speak for all Britons!

Damkerng T.

True!

Cerberus

I only know in what direction principles of traditional style would point.

Damkerng T.

But what do you think? (Your opinions are highly regarded here. :-)

Cerberus

Well, I would use it as I said above.

Damkerng T.

2:55 PM

I see. Thanks!

Cerberus

No fruits for pieces of fruit.

Unless there is no alternative.

Damkerng T.

I found this example in Macmillan Dictionary: a shrub with white flowers and small red fruits

It confuses me a bit. I mean, I don't feel like the red fruits are of different kinds.

4 hours later…

Stack Exchange

6:56 PM

Q: List of authors of 21st century

The problem is that I want to improve my english by reading books, but I don't know which books should I read to know about correct 21st century English. I could find some books through Google but they were for adults. I wish to know the list of authors whose work can trusted to be grammatical...

discussion

1 hour later…

Damkerng T.

8:24 PM

Q: Can be thought of as [verb]+ing ... What's the grammar and use?

Consider this example: Subjectivity detection or ranking at the document level can be thought of as having its roots in studies in genre classification. I don't get what is the type of clause after thought of as, and what meaning this structure is trying to convey.