WHEN did the noun “rubbish” become a verb? For example, “Mr So and so rubbished talk that the market will be rebuilt.” Even if it can be used as a verb, isn’t it too informal to be used in print? – Mrs Chow

The first recorded use of “rubbish” as a verb in English was in 1953, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition 1989). This dictionary also says that such usage originated in Australia and New Zealand. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (2004, revised 2009) states that the verb “rubbish” is an informal verb in British English and defines it as “criticize and reject as worthless.” The verb is nevertheless widely used in the Internet editions of some respectable British newspapers, and on BBC websites (see examples below). Editors of these media websites obviously don’t consider it too informal to be used in print, but perhaps it is too informal to be used in scholarly publications.

“The theory of Scandinavian racial purity cherished by Hitler and the Nazis has been rubbished by new scientific research.” (telegraph.co.uk, June 13, 2008)

“A top historian has revealed who rubbished rivals’ works in online postings.” (guardian.co.uk, April 18, 2010)

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said such a force would be “welcome but very overdue”. “For two years we have been calling for a dedicated border police force – something ministers have consistently rubbished,” he said. (BBC News website June 23, 2008)

Plural or singular

1. Are these sentences correct?

a. How many clothes did you buy? I bought many clothes.

b. What is the reason behind all this?

c. What are the reasons behind all these?

2. What about this sentence referring to the future?

We’ll have to see how it goes on Sunday. (Shouldn’t this sentence be changed to “... how it will go on Sunday”?)

3. Do we say “You don’t have any choice” or “You don’t have any choices”?

OALD says “any” is used with uncountable or plural nouns in negative sentences. – Jason

1. a. “Clothes” exists only as a plural noun, but we don’t put a number before the word “clothes”, e.g. we don’t say “two clothes” or “20 clothes”. We may speak generally about quantity of clothes by saying someone “has far too many clothes”, or someone else “has very few clothes”, or even “I bought many clothes.” But when we want to count the number of clothes someone bought or owns, we use “articles/items/pieces of clothing” or “garments”, or we specify the item(s) of clothing.

So, we don’t ask “How many clothes did you buy?” We usually ask: “How many shirts did you buy?” OR “How many shirts and pairs of jeans did you buy?”

A sales assistant may tell you: “Sir, you are allowed to try on three garments at a time in the fitting room.” (the garments may be different items of clothing, e.g. a T-shirt, a shirt, and a pair of trousers)

OR we may say of a friend who loves shopping: “She finally came out of the shopping complex with fifty items of clothing in several large shopping bags.”

The sentences in b. & c. are both correct. We can say:

b. What is the reason behind all this?

c. What are the reasons behind all these?

In fact, we can even say:

d. What are the reasons behind all this?

e. What is the reason behind all these?

In b. the person asking the question thinks there is only one reason behind a certain situation or incident. For example, a teacher, finding that no one in her class was responding to her questions, not even the usually responsive students, asked: “What is the reason behind all this?” “All this” refers to one situation, i.e. the students’ lack of response to the teacher. If she thought that there was more than one reason why the students were behaving so strangely, she would have asked Question d: “What are the reasons behind all this?”

Let me now illustrate how Questions c. and e. can be used, through an imaginary dialogue in the teachers’ room:

Teacher X : “We are having so much trouble at school: attempts to set fire to classrooms at night, vandalism of school property, horrible graffiti on the walls, and so on. What do you think are the reasons behind all these?” (“All these” refers to the anti-social acts that have been mentioned before.)

Teacher Y: “I think you should be asking ‘What is the reason behind all these?’ I’m sure there is only one reason: the frustration of that group of delinquent students we all know about.”

2. When a sentence begins with a clause using the future verb “will+ base form”, the form of the verb in the next clause need not be “will + base form” as well. It depends on the verb used in the first clause. A sentence beginning with “We’ll/I’ll have to see how/what ...” is usually followed by a clause using the simple present tense, as in the sentence you quoted: “We’ll have to see how it goes on Sunday.”

Let me give you other examples of similar sentences from the Internet:

“... We’ll have to see how things proceed today in the various markets around the world.” (Canada’s finance minister as quoted in a Reuters report of March 18)

“I will have to see how I am next year. If I feel I can go on again, I will do. If not, then I won’t.” (Paul Scholes, English footballer, talking about possible retirement, as quoted by telegraph.co.uk. May 23, 2009)

“We’ll have to see what they (the Minnesota judges) do and see what the next step is,” Coleman said. (from a Reuters article on March 25, 2009)

3. We say: “You don’t have any choice.” “Choice” is an uncountable noun in some of its meanings, e.g. “the right to choose or the possibility of choosing.” (OALD, meaning 2 of “choice”) One of the examples given by OALD to illustrate this meaning is “He had no choice but to leave.”

Past perfect

1. Could you please explain why a past perfect tense is used for a single past action in the following sentence noted on page 1,752 of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (7th edition) for the word “wish” (Verb – sense 1): “I wish I hadn’t eaten so much.”

Also, are the following sentences correct?

A. I wish I haven’t eaten so much.

B. I wish you will be a millionaire one day. (Assuming high possibility of becoming a millionaire)

2. Why is a noun used as an adjective if there is already an adjective for such a word/noun? For example, privilege banking instead of privileged banking?

3. Do we say “Dr. Mahathir is/was the fourth PM of Malaysia? – Leong Lee Fah

1. When you are using “wish” as a main verb with a “that-clause”, we use past tenses with a present or future meaning. “Past perfect tenses are used for wishes about the past.” (M. Swan, Practical English Usage, 2005)

That is why the OALD uses “I wish I hadn’t eaten so much.”, NOT “I wish I haven’t eaten so much.”

The clause following “wish” is said to be a “that-clause”, because “that” is used before it as a connector, but it may also be dropped. Thus the sentence may be written: “I wish (that) I hadn’t eaten so much.”

B. To wish, in sense 1. of the verb “wish” in OALD, means “to want something to happen or to be true even though it is unlikely or impossible.” That is why the past or past perfect tenses are used in the OALD examples, like “I wish I were/was taller” and “I only wish I knew”.

So instead of using the verb “wish” in a sentence that assumes a high possibility of what you say coming true, why not use another verb like “I know”, “I think” or “I hope”:

“I know/think/hope you will be a millionaire one day.” Then you can use “will” instead of “would”.

2. I don’t know why “privilege banking” is used instead of “privileged banking”. But in the case of some other nouns that are used as adjectives (also known as “noun modifiers”) when the noun already has an adjectival form, the noun modifier is used before a different noun than the adjectival form, and has a different meaning. For example:

A “history teacher” is a teacher who teaches history.

A “historical reason” for something is a reason that can be found in the past. For example, the historical reason why Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra are now parts of different countries was the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824. We also talk of “historical documents”, “historical research”, etc

Another adjective formed from the word “history”, is “historic”, which means “of great historical importance and likely to be remembered”, e.g. “The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a historic event, especially for Germany. It signified the reunification of East and West Germany after several decades of separation.”

There are also noun modifiers that are made to rhyme with the nouns they modify, for humorous effect in informal phrases, e.g. “culture vulture” meaning “a person who is very interested in serious art, music, literature, etc.” (OALD). In English football jargon, a “bore draw” is a score of 0-0, considered boring because no goals are scored, as opposed to a “score draw” which is a draw with goals scored, like 1-1, 2-2, etc.

3. We say “Dr. Mahathir was the fourth PM of Malaysia.” Although Dr Mahathir is still alive, he is no longer the prime minister of Malaysia. We can see how Mrs Thatcher, for example is described on some reputable websites:

Margaret Thatcher was Britain’s first female prime minister and served three consecutive terms in office. (from a BBC History website)

Margaret Thatcher was Britain’s first female prime minister, who became a pivotal figure in British and world politics. (from www.biographyonline.net)

• Survey: Britons love tea more than coffee
• New York City relies on automation technologies to face challenges of urbanisation
• Oil palm firms team up with Sabah to protect Malua Forest Reserve
• Powering the Big Apple
• Build robust cities
• Fun with words
• Rail marvel in New York
• Fun with synonyms
• Carnegie Hall gets green facelift
• Win The Good Food Cook Book!

Latest Jobs from Star-Jobs