9 Responses to “Grammar Guru: Fish – it or them?”

not fair, not fair – too difficult!
Can i vote twice?

Left by chris on March 25th, 2010

We had it for dinner yesterday. A variation of the above Indian recipe, substituting dried apricots and fig sauce and yoghurt for the tomatoes (which are not in season no matter how you slice it. Plus, to be honest, I had the ones Helmut bought for lunch.)

And we’re going to visit them at some Bavarian castle or other on Saturday to see how they survived this awfully cold winter. Will keep you posted.

Left by Anne on March 25th, 2010

Shaan Khan’s lovely dish
Ingredients:

haddock (=Schellfisch) or any white fish
chopped tomatoes

cumin seeds (Jeera)
green chili peppers
garlic

curry leaves (Kaddipatta)
Thai fish sauce (Nam Pla) or fish stock
curry power (coriander, cumin, turmeric)
asafoetida (Hing)
balsamic vinegar (or tamarind or lemon juice)
salt

also see http://www.rajput.co.uk

Left by Anne on March 25th, 2010

[...] Grammar Guru: Fish – it or them? [...]

Left by Englischlinks der Woche (KW 13) - Englisch lernen on March 28th, 2010

“I’m thinking about what to make for our dinner party. How about having fish?” “Nice! We could serve ______ as the main course.”

* it (91%, 20 votes)
* them (9%, 2 votes)

Total voters: 22

That was a clear vote in favor of not giving your dinner a pet name!
Grammar Guru

Left by Anne on March 30th, 2010

hello!
why it is wrong to say:
i’ll buy a fish for dinner.
and we should use some instead?
the second question is that why shouldn’t we use any in this sentence:there isn’t a newsagent’s in the town.

thank you

Left by inge on December 15th, 2010

Hi Inge,

1. It’s cultural:
Let’s buy some fish for dinner. (food, etwas Fisch)
Let’s buy a new fish for the aquarium. (a pet, einen Fisch)
We often talk differently about the dinner dish and the farm animal/pet, don’t we?
We might eat veal cutlet (Kalbschnitzel), but not many of us could slaughter the calf!

2. There isn’t a vs. There aren’t any
There isn’t a single shop still open! (kein einziger)
There isn’t a shop still open – anywhere! (keiner, norgends)
There aren’t any shops still open. (keine mehr)

not a (single) = emphasized
not any shops = countable, simple statement

Hope that helps!

Left by Anne on December 17th, 2010

What’s happened to all the shops!! I haven’t done any christmas shopping yet!

Left by chris adams on December 17th, 2010

Hehe, actually, it doesn’t help at all, does it?

Left by Anne on December 20th, 2010

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