Page 228 - Basic English Usage
P. 228

299                         230


                 If  |  say  my  elder  brother/sister,  |  only  have  one  brother  or  sister  older  than
                 me.  If  |  have  more,  |  say  e/dest.
                 We  say  elder  son/daughter  when  there  are  only  two;  if  there  are  more  we
                 say  eldest.
                 Elder  and  e/dest  are  only  used  before  brother,  sister  etc.
                 In  other  cases  we  use  o/der  and  oldest.
                   She  likes  older  men.
                   I'm  the  oldest  person  in  my  office.

                 experience  and  experiment
                 The  tests  which  scientists  do  are  called  experiments.
                   Newton  did  several  experiments  on  light  and  colour.
                   (NOT  ...  severatexperiences ...)
                 We  also  use  experiment  for  anything  that  people  do  to  see  what  the
                 result  will  be.
                   Try  some  of  this  perfume  as  an  experiment.
                 Experiences  are  the  things  that  you  ‘live  through’:  the  things  that  happen
                 to  you  in  life.
                   /  had  a  lot  of  interesting  experiences  during  my  year  in  Africa.
                 The  uncountable  noun  experience  means  ‘learning  by  doing  things’  or
                 ‘the  knowledge  you  get  from  doing  things’.
                   Salesginl  wanted  . experience  unnecessary.

                 female  and  feminine;  male  and  masculine
                 Female  and  male  say  what  sex  people,  animals  and  plants  belong  to.
                   A  female  fox  is  called  a  vixen.
                   He  works  as  a  male  nurse
                 Feminine  and  masculine  are  used  for  qualities  and  behaviour  that  are
                 supposed  to  be  typical  of  men  or  women.
                   She  has  a  very  masculine  laugh.
                   It  was  a  very  feminine  bathroom.
                 Feminine  and  masculine  are  also  used  for  grammatical  forms  in  some
                 languages.
                   The  word  for  ‘moon’  is  feminine  in  French  and  masculine  in  German.

                 its  and  it’s
                 Its  is  a  possessive  determiner,  like  my,  your,  his  and  her.
                   The  cat's  hurt  its  foot  (NOT  ..  . it's-feet)
                 It’s  is  a  contraction  for  it  is  or  it  has.
                   It’s  late.  (NOT  4tstate-)   ‘It’s  stopped  raining.
   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233