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Blogger
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OP
Blogger
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Hi: Someone told me that if I use the word "some" before a plural noun, I mean at least 6. For example: if I said "some people" in a group of 6, I mean all of them. Is this true?? Is this a real grammatical rule? I've never heard of it before. (Then again, I never paid too much attention in classes.  ) If it's true, how should I describe 3~4 in 6~9? It somehow doesn't seem right to use "most" or "many", does it? "Several" maybe?
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 1,587 |
My dictionary backs up the way I've always used it -- of a certain unspecified number (empahsis mine). I've certainly never heard of any rule regarding "some" referring to any given number. Surely "Some of my fingers got sticky," cannot mean at least 6? And "Some of the people in the crowd were becoming impatient," seems to me to imply far more than 6. 
Do you know the most surprising thing about divorce? It doesn't actually kill you, like a bullet to the heart or a head-on car wreck. It should. When someone you've promised to cherish till death do you part says, "I never loved you," it should kill you instantly.
- Under the Tuscan Sun
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 184 |
I'm with Rivka, some isn't used refer to any specific number of objects in group. I shall now quote from my grammar bible (which is Swan's 'Practical English Usage' - I like it because it has pretty colours in it)... "Some is a determiner. If often suggests an indefinite quantity or number, and is used to when it is not important to say exactly how much/many we are thinking of." I don't always agree with books, but I do on this  I can't really think of a situation where some could mean 6... Helga (The difference between some/any being one of the many English grammar points that she can teach  )
Knowledge is knowing that tomatoes are a fruit.
Intelligence is not putting them in a fruit salad.
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Boards Chief Administrator Emeritus Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Boards Chief Administrator Emeritus Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 9,362 |
I'm with Rivka too. I've never heard of this one before and, as her examples make clear, it doesn't seem to logically hold water. LabRat
Athos: If you'd told us what you were doing, we might have been able to plan this properly.
Aramis: Yes, sorry.
Athos: No, no, by all means, let's keep things suicidal.
The Musketeers
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Joined: Apr 2003
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Blogger
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OP
Blogger
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Thanks for the links and the reassurance. So, say there's a list on which 6 or 7 books are mentioned. If I say I've read "some" books on that list, a sensible person will not mistake it for the statement: I've read all of them, right? Again, thanks for your help.
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Joined: Apr 2003
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 1,587 |
If someone said that to me, I would figure, at least 2 or 3, not more than 4 (or maybe 5). Now, as to whether I qualify as a "sensible" person . . .
Do you know the most surprising thing about divorce? It doesn't actually kill you, like a bullet to the heart or a head-on car wreck. It should. When someone you've promised to cherish till death do you part says, "I never loved you," it should kill you instantly.
- Under the Tuscan Sun
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Columnist
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Columnist
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 713 |
My LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) teacher told us that some means "at least one" and that it could mean up to all of the group. I don't know if this only applies to the test or to grammer in general, but I thought I'd throw it out there for consideration. When I hear the word "some" in everyday conversation I usually think that it means a significant number of the group, probably not more than half. I don't know what that's worth, but I thought I'd throw that out there too. ~Anna
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