[Grammar] The bone (help/helps) us move.

[Eslam Elbyaly]

Hi, I need to know which sentence is correct of the following,
- The bone (help/helps) us move.
The sentence is talking about bones in general and their function and purpose, not about a specific bone. Should "help" or "helps" be used?

 

[GoesStation]

Re: Which sentence is correct?

- The bone (help/helps) us move.
The sentence is talking about bones in general and their function and purpose, not about a specific bone. Should "help" or "helps" be used?

The definite article means you're talking about a specific bone. Try this instead: "Bones help us move."

 

[Tarheel]

Re: Which sentence is correct?

Are those your sentences?

 

[Rover_KE]

Please note that I have changed your thread title.

Extract from the Posting Guidelines:'

Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[Eslam Elbyaly]

Re: Which sentence is correct?

As far as I know, one can say, for example, "The poor are suffering" to refer to poor men not just one person.

 

[GoesStation]

Re: Which sentence is correct?

As far as I know, one can say, for example, "The poor are suffering" to refer to poor men not just one person.

You can. However, in that sentence, "poor" is a non-countable noun referring to poor people in general. "Bone" is countable in the sentence we're discussing.

 

[PeterCW]

Re: Which sentence is correct?

As far as I know, one can say, for example, "The poor are suffering" to refer to poor men not just one person.

In this case "poor" is a collective noun but "bone" is never normally interpreted as such.

 

[Tarheel]

"Bones help us move" is grammatically correct.

 

[emsr2d2]

Here are four possible uses:

The bone helps us move. (One specific bone.)
The bones help us move. (All bones or ones that have previously been mentioned.)
Bones help us move. (Bones, generally.)
Bone helps us move. (Generic term "bone" - the material from which your skeleton is made.)

 

[teechar]

I really don't like "Bone helps us move". To me, it's unnatural. After all, it's not the material, but the bones themselves which help us move.

 

[jutfrank]

I can only imagine the OP is trying to say: Our bones help us move.

 

[Tarheel]

"Our bones help us move" is a perfectly grammatical sentence. That doesn't mean it makes sense. The bones comprise the skeleton, which along with the muscles make movement possible. That is, of course, not enough. The nervous system plays a role. All of those things together make movement possible.

 

[Eslam Elbyaly]

Thanks to all of you. That sentence "The bone "helps" us move" was seen by me in my nieces school book. And I thought it was wrong to use the "s" with "help" because the sentence does not talk about a specific bone. That's why I asked which one was correct, and did not ask about the best way to convey the sentence. If I was trying to say something like that, I would say, "Bones help us move.".
So, what I need to know is, which sentence is correct,
1- The bone help us move.
2- The bone helps us move.
or are both wrong?

 

[Eslam Elbyaly]

You said "the writer has used 'The bone' (singular) to convey this idea.". How could it be singular when the writer does not talk about a specific bone? The only way I can imagine is that the writer refers to "bone" as "the calcified material of which bones consist" as translated in "Google Translate". But in that context, the calcified material is not the object that helps us move, it's the bone structure. The product that built using the "bone".

 

[Tarheel]

"The bone" is singular. That's a fact.

You have received some good answers. What you want to do with them is up to you.

 

[tedmc]

"The bone" is singular. That's a fact.

You have received some good answers. What you want to do with them is up to you.

It is simple as that. There is no need to go into the mechanism of movement and composition of bones.

 

[Rover_KE]

The sentence "The bone helps us move" was seen by me in my niece's school book.*

This should have been the very first sentence of your post #1, EE – not #14 (!) – and you should have told us who wrote it and in what context.

We still don't know whether the 'school book' is the one your niece wrote the sentence in, a dodgy grammar textbook, or an iffy treatise on anatomy and physiology.

*(Most of us would have written I saw the sentence "The bone helps us move" in my niece's school book.)

 

[Eslam Elbyaly]

This should have been the very first sentence of your post #1, EE – not #14 (!)

It has nothing to do with any of the two sentences being grammatically wrong or right.

*(Most of us would have written I saw the sentence "The bone helps us move" in my niece's school book.)

I am asking if it's grammatically correct or not. In this example, I think yours is right and mine is wrong because you use the ('s).

 

[Rover_KE]

It has nothing to do with any of the two sentences being grammatically wrong or right.

.

We'll be the judges of that.

You still haven't told us what you mean by 'school book'.

 

[Tarheel]

It has nothing to do with either of the two sentences being grammatically wrong or right.

:-?