Konnichiwa minasan!

[SuzuQ]

>Pikctsach-san, richvh-san
Singular form and plural form are sometimes tricky and confusing for me.
So... is the word "someone" always singular?? or does it depend on a situation?
oops, i guess i should wait asking those questions until we get the Practice English forum!

>TrilinguisT-san,
I'm glad to hear that people here like Japanese people ああ、良かった!
チャットも参加してみたいですが、普段は仕事場から書き込みをしているので・・・。
so, you know, my boss won't be happy if he finds me chatting...

[richvh]

SuzuQ wrote:
>Pikctsach-san, richvh-san
Singular form and plural form are sometimes tricky and confusing for me.
So... is the word "someone" always singular?? or does it depend on a situation?
oops, i guess i should wait asking those questions until we get the Practice English forum!

Yes, "someone" is always treated as a singular noun, even if it may refer to more than one person. I think it falls into the category of "collective nouns."

I don't see a problem with asking your questions before there is a separate forum dedicated to them.

[pikctsach]

B), at the first glance, i thought simply that [someone who wants to know] was correct, just lacked the [to]. But while I was replying to SuzuQ-san, I confused and decided that {someone} was plural noun :p

次回は辞書を使用しようと思っています。
じゃ、いい勉強になった！

[tanuki]

Welcome to the forums, SuzuQ-san!

I'm looking forward to getting help from you. I probably won't be of much help to you because English isn't my first language, but if you ever need help with Spanish, count on me.

[MFoogle]

bleh, i cant read very much japanese (only a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in kanji, and a, e, i, o, u, and n in hirigana.) so i cant understand half of what people are saying, but i hope i can learn more in the next few days (i am doing hirigana first) and i hope i will bea ble to get better at my Japanese. well, it must have been hard for at first with english, right? the sentence fluency is what i am having the most trouble with at the moment with japanese becasue it is so different from english. well, in a few years i hope i will be able to speak it more fluently, but i doubt i will get it to be fluent unless i visit a japanese-speaking area (which the only places i know are japan and hawaii). well, i guess we can both help each other out, right?

[SuzuQ]

> richvh-san, pikctsach-san,
Collective noun! It's a new word to me. I gues it's the category where sheep and furniture fall into?

> tanuki-san,
I will always be happy to help you! Did you know that Spanish is the second language I want to learn? Maybe I need your help soon!

> MFoogle-san,
こんにちは！konnichiwa!
yes, learning English was so hard at first! Little SuzuQ often wrote b for d and something like "I and friend together school go" and "how long are you?"....
well, learning ひらがな/hiragana first is a good idea. That's the first thing every Japanese people learn I hope you enjoy learning Japanese!:D

[Machina Maw]

はじめまして〜！^___^ My reply to this thread is a bit late, sorry... but, welcome, welcome ^__^ hope you like it here.

[aoisatomi]

（＾▽＾）私も！はじめまして、SuzuQさん！このサイトではたくさん友達に会うでしょう。皆様はとても好意的ですよ。どうぞよろしくおねがいします！

[ss]

SuzuQ san, I would like to share these with you, hope they help.

Examples of Infinite/Compound Pronouns:
somebody, someone, something, anybody, anything, everyone, everybody, no one, nobody, nothing.
(And including these: all, each, few, many, more, much, none, several, nothing, one, some)

Referring to persons: anybody, everyone, everybody, someone, nobody, no one

Referring to things: anything, everything, something, nothing

We always use singular verbs with compound pronouns, examples :-
Someone is peering in through the window.
Everybody is not feeling well today.
There isn’t anyone who will wash the plates.
There is no one who likes Sherily.
There is nothing in the box.
Nobody has the right to do that!
Something like that does not happen any more.
Anyone likes to help out here?
No one is allowed to enter that room!

We use “someone”, “somebody” and “something” in positive sentences, examples -
Someone is hiding at the door.
Somebody has to clean this up.
There is something in my eyes!

We use “anyone”, “anything” and “anybody” in negative sentences and questions, examples -
Is there anyone at home?
Carry doesn’t look anything like her sister.
I did not see anybody I knew at the party.

[richvh]

SuzuQ wrote:
> richvh-san, pikctsach-san,
Collective noun! It's a new word to me. I gues it's the category where sheep and furniture fall into?

Furniture, yes (I can't think of a context where I'd say "The furniture are..."), but not sheep - sheep just doesn't have a distinct plural, but it is used as a plural.

例えば:
My sheep are in the meadow (I have more than one.)
Your sheep is in the meadow, too (you only have one.)

Collective nouns typically refer to a group as one entity: a flock, a herd, an army.

[SuzuQ]

>Machina Maw-san, aoisatomi-san
はじめまして　＆　よろしくおねがいします！^^
People here are so nice, I really like this website!

>Shirley Sia-san,
Wow すごい！thank you for the detailed information! It was really helpful. Now I know I sould use singular verbs for compound pronouns!

>richvh-san,
Thank you again. My dictionary didn't have a word "collective noun", so I had to guess what it is, but now I understand it! Wow I learned so many things today.

Thank you all! ありがとう!:D