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Unread Mar 17th, 2013, 02:22 pm
susan53 susan53 is offline
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Default Re: Please check if the sentences are correct and natural

1. No a) because if the bottle was on the table it would presumably be in plain view and you wouldn't "preannounce" it - you'd just sayCan I have some of that milk on the table?; b) because again, a bottle of milk is not an "integral and unsurprising" component of a table. Presuming that the table wasn't in sight, you'd say something like : I saw there's a bottle of milk on the table in the other room. Can I have some of it?

If you apply the "Is it an integral and unsurprising component?" criterion, you get a definite "OK" for the use of "have" in 4, and all the examples in 5, 6,7,8 and 9.

2 and 3 sound odd - wolves and hotels are a possible, but not "integral and unsurprising", component of forests and neighbourhoods. Both of these sentences really focus on the existence of X in Y - there's no suggestion of X being possessed by or an "unsurprising" component of Y. So I'd prefer There are a lot of wolves ... and Are there any hotels...

Notice incidentally that there are problems with the grammaticality/naturalness of other elements in the sentences :

1. It's unusual to use many in an assertive context (such as the affirmative sentences here) when it's in object/complement position. Use a lot of instead.

2. Remember that kind of must become kinds of when the context is plural, and it's usually modified with an adjective like different or various.

So, without any further context, I'd rewrite(where necessary) your list as :

1. I saw there's a bottle of milk on the table in the other room. Can I have some?

2. There are a lot of wolves in the forest. So be careful when you travel there.

3. Are there any hotels in this area?

4. How many rooms does your flat have?

5.My neighborhood has a park. The park has a pond and the pond has a lot of fish in it.

6.The zoo has a lot of different kinds of animals such as lions, tigers, and elephants

7.The picture has three cats in it.

8. You look tired. My room has a chair - you can sit in it and rest if you want.

9.My living room has a TV, butthat's the only one in the house.

Again though, depending on the context (which means more than a single sentence - the context is the whole situation surrounding the sentence) some of your uses of have might well sound more natural than when taken in isolation as here. So, for your number 5 :

A and B have both just started work in a new city. They've both moved there, but are living in different areas.

A : I can't believe the number of hotels in this city! Where I live, there seems to be one on every block! What about where you are? Does your area have a lot of hotels?
Because of what A says first, it's clear that she does see hotels as an "integral" part of this particular city and the area where she lives. And so the use of have becomes natural. Similarly, imagine a naturalist talking about forests in country X :

Of course, the forests here are famous for their bears - there are more here than anywhere else in the world. And wolves too. Forests X, Y and Z have a lot of wolves - so many that you have to be careful when you're travelling there.

He's saying that, in this case, wolves are an "integral and unsurprising" component of these forests - whether they are elsewhere is unimportant because the context specifies that the general situation is unimportant. you could have achieved much the same effect in your sentence just by changing The to This...
This forest has a lot of wolves - so be careful when you travel there.
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