Daily Grammar – Week 1

DAILY GRAMMAR (DG) 04-03-2018

1. It is a sad news that the man lost his job.(No)

It is a piece of sad news that the man lost his job. (Yes)

It is sad news that the man lost his job. (Yes)

(“News”, in spite of its appearance, is a singular noun.)

2. Stop pulling my legs, I know its a joke. (No)

Stop pulling my leg, I know it’s a joke. (Yes)

(There is just one “leg” in this idiom, don’t pluralise it. Also, “its” is a possessive pronoun, as we have in “a dog wags its tail”, but “it’s” is a contraction of “it is”.)

3. The fish she gave me is a specie of tilapia. (No)

The fish she gave me is a species of tilapia. (Yes)

(“Species” is both singular and plural in meaning. When it is used in the plural sense, it must behave that way. For example, “we have many species of snakes in our zoo.” Also, there is a singular form of “specie” but it is restricted in use to the context of finance, meaning “coins, not paper money.”)