One dollar apiece

[TheParser]

"The donuts (doughnuts) cost one dollar apiece." Most "experts" say that "apiece" modifies the verb "cost"; a few "experts" say it actually modifies the noun "one dollar." What is your considered opinion? Thank you very much.

 

[vil]

I’m not a teacher

Hi TheParser,

Here a few words concerning the matter in question.

apiece = each by itself; by the single one; to each; as the share of each; as, these melons cost a shilling apiece

apiece: Definition from Answers.com

apiece - definition of apiece by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

To give the boys two books apiece.

They had five roubles apiece.

That's a hundred and twenty thousand for two houses. They could be sixty thousand apiece.

He paid £2.39 for each share and sold 3.4 million of them the same day for £26 apiece, walking away with £82.5 million in cash and two million shares still in his possesion.

The donuts (doughnuts) cost one dollar apiece.

Regards,

V.

 

[bhaisahab]

"The donuts (doughnuts) cost one dollar apiece." Most "experts" say that "apiece" modifies the verb "cost"; a few "experts" say it actually modifies the noun "one dollar." What is your considered opinion? Thank you very much.

"Apiece" is an adverb, it can't modify a noun.

 

[The French]

Hi,

I am not a teacher, just a learner but I have never seen an adverb modified a noun. In French or Spanish it's the same.

Do you know a language who has this grammar rule ? I'm joking with you ;-) but maybe there is one.

Have a nice day.

 

[TheParser]

Hi,

I am not a teacher, just a learner but I have never seen an adverb modified a noun. In French or Spanish it's the same.

Do you know a language who has this grammar rule ? I'm joking with you ;-) but maybe there is one.

Have a nice day.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I believe that most grammar books say that so-called adverbs can occasionally modify nouns. I guess a popular example is: Tom loves ONLY Mona. Another: He did it, NOT I.

 

[TheParser]

I wish to express my gratitude to the nice members who took the effort to help me with this question. Happy Twenty-ten to you and your families. :-D

 

[bhaisahab]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I believe that most grammar books say that so-called adverbs can occasionally modify nouns. I guess a popular example is: Tom loves ONLY Mona. Another: He did it, NOT I.

I would say, in those examples, "only" modifies "loves", and "not" modifies" "did".

 

[The French]

Hi,

You have written 'Tom loves ONLY Mona', but in this case 'only' tell us something about the verb love and not on Mona. I justify my mind, Tom can love one woman like Mona in your example but Tom can love two or more girls, too. In conclusion the adverb 'only' give us information about how many persons Tom loves.

We can rewrite your sentence like that : Tom loves not more that one girl, she's Mona.

The word 'only' doesn't modify the proper name 'Mona'.

But I am just a learner and I'm sure you follow the way of my mind.;-)

I have a break it's time to lunch (8 p.m).

Have a nice and sunny day (Note: I'm interested about the name of the book in which you have read that adverbs can sometimes complete the nouns).

Best,

The Frenchie.:-D

 

[TheParser]

Hi,

You have written 'Tom loves ONLY Mona', but in this case 'only' tell us something about the verb love and not on Mona. I justify my mind, Tom can love one woman like Mona in your example but Tom can love two or more girls, too. In conclusion the adverb 'only' give us information about how many persons Tom loves.

We can rewrite your sentence like that : Tom loves not more that one girl, she's Mona.

The word 'only' doesn't modify the proper name 'Mona'.

But I am just a learner and I'm sure you follow the way of my mind.;-)

I have a break it's time to lunch (8 p.m).

Have a nice and sunny day (Note: I'm interested about the name of the book in which you have read that adverbs can sometimes complete the nouns).

Best,

The Frenchie.:-D

Many thanks to you and bhaisahab for holding my feet to the fire. If you look at any comprehensive grammar book, you'll find a discussion about the strange word "only." E.g., many learners like Michael Swan's PRACTICAL ENGLISH USAGE. In any case, I have this info but I didn't write the source: "An adverb can theoretically modify just about anything in the sentence." His examples:Only HE said he loved me (No one else did); He said he loved only MR (no one else but me). Let me quickly end by mentioning Professor George O. Curme's scholarly two-volume grammar. If you are ever in the market for a discussion of the historical development of English, this book from the 1930's is THE book. He says there are a "peculiar" group of adverbs that "call especial attention to a particular part." (P.S. I did not mistype "especial." He used that wonderful word!) Two of his examples: Only JOHN passed in Latin/ JOHN only passed in Latin. As you can imagine, the average person couldn't care less about this subject. So it was great debating it with the wonderful posters who answered.
(P.S. Above I typed MR. Of course, I meant ME. I'm too computer illiterate to know how to edit.)