some men

arthurvv vart

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Jun 26, 2022, 2:22:30 AM6/26/22

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-A policeman was following me.
-You mean some man who was wearing a police uniform?
-Yes

1:
- Two policemen were following me.
- You mean some men who were wearing police uniforms?
- Yes.

------------------------------

-A policeman called at our home today.
-You mean some man who was wearing a police uniform?
-Yes.

2:
-Two policeman called at our home today.
-You mean some men who was wearing police uniforms?
-Yes.

Are '1' and '2' grammatically correct?

"Some" works with one and it works with more than two, but my question is whether it works with two. To me, 'some men' is more than two and cannot be used for two people. But 'some man' can be used for one person.

Gratefully,
Navi

Richard Heathfield

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Jun 26, 2022, 2:45:23 AM6/26/22

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On 26/06/2022 7:22 am, arthurvv vart wrote:
> To me, 'some men' is more than two and cannot be used for two people.

Cannot?

Try harder.

Brenda, who is holding a dinner party, is about to pour wine, is
in the kitchen, and has just counted out glasses from a cupboard
for the early arrivals.

Alice (flatmate): "Some guests at the door for you, darling."

Brenda: "Oh? How many?"

Alice checks through the door's peephole. "Uh, two, I think."

+++

"Cannot" is a hostage to fortune.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

CDB

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Jun 26, 2022, 7:34:50 AM6/26/22

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On 6/26/2022 2:22 AM, arthurvv vart wrote:

> -A policeman was following me. -You mean some man who was wearing a
> police uniform? -Yes

> 1: - Two policemen were following me. - You mean some men who were
> wearing police uniforms? - Yes.

> ------------------------------
>
> -A policeman called at our home today. -You mean some man who was
> wearing a police uniform? -Yes.

> 2: -Two policeman called at our home today. -You mean some men who
> was wearing police uniforms? -Yes. Are '1' and '2' grammatically
> correct?

Yes, apart from the "was" in '2'; but the word "some" has different
meanings in the two contexts. "Some man" means "a man of some kind",
while "some men" means "a number of men"; the idea of their
(unspecified) kind is only implied by the context.

> "Some" works with one and it works with more than two, but my
> question is whether it works with two. To me, 'some men' is more
> than two and cannot be used for two people. But 'some man' can be
> used for one person.

Can you explain the difference you see in its use with two and its use
with more than two?

arthurvv vart

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Jun 26, 2022, 8:56:31 AM6/26/22

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Thank you both very much,

I have been thinking about that myself. That is the way I use the equivalent word in my languages. I don't know if everybody else uses those words in the same way as me.

That is one of the problems non-natives have. There is a word in their own language that is basically the equivalent of a word in the language they are learning, but there is a difference.

One's native tongue casts a shadow on one's non-native language.

Life's too complicated.

Respectfully,
Navi

Peter T. Daniels

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Jun 26, 2022, 12:12:45 PM6/26/22

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Of course it "works." But not in the idiomatic sense appearing in
the first sentences.

bruce bowser

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Jun 28, 2022, 11:35:29 AM6/28/22

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Yet, each day is a new beginning.

Quinn C

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Jun 28, 2022, 4:55:25 PM6/28/22

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* arthurvv vart:

In many cases, "some" is interchangeable with "a few". But I feel "a
few" is usually not used for two. So the issue arises even within one
language.

I did not check this first, but here you have it:

| some
|
| A certain number, at least two.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/some>

| a few
|
| A small number of; more than two.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/a_few>

--
It's like a bloody war zone up there. And not in a good way.
-- Spike, Buffy S07E13

arthurvv vart

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Jun 30, 2022, 2:01:15 AM6/30/22

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Thank you all very much,

Quinn, that is an interesting point. I am sure there are cases where native speakers don't use a word or an expression in the exact same way.

I am not sure that this is one of those cases, but it might be. I'm under the impression that all native English speakers agree that 'some' can refer to 'two' and 'a few' can't.

Respectfully,
Navi

Ken Blake

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Jun 30, 2022, 11:26:27 AM6/30/22

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On Wed, 29 Jun 2022 23:01:10 -0700 (PDT), arthurvv vart
<arthu...@gmail.com> wrote:

>I am not sure that this is one of those cases, but it might be. I'm under the impression that all native English speakers agree that 'some' can refer to 'two' and 'a few' can't.

As far as I'm concerned, "A few" can never refer to just two. Some"
can sometimes refer to just two, but in most cases, it's much like "a
few" and refers to more than two.