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Noun meaning

Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2004 2:55 am
by yingbonnie
Dear teacher,

There is a sentence : Their excrement smelled so bad.

How about this sentence. Their excrement were very stinky.

Could I say that they have the same meaning?

Best regards,

Bonnie

Re: Noun meaning

Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 6:47 pm
by Joe
yingbonnie wrote:1. Their excrement smelled so bad.
2. Their excrement were very stinky.

Could I say that they have the same meaning?
Yes, same meaning.

But, as far as I know, excrement is uncountable, so 2 should be:

Their excrement was very stinky.

Stinky is informal. Though possible, it is a strange combination with the formal word excrement. More formally, you could use the verb to stink and say:
Their excrement stank.