Expression: A little salt on my food

English as a Second Language English Teacher Explanations (ESL Tests)
1

hello all of you,

Test No. [color=blue]errors/elem-3 “She works hard”, question 1

If you don’t mind I’d like to have a few salt on my food before it gets any colder.

(a) mind
(b) a few
(c) food

Test No. [color=blue]errors/elem-3 “She works hard”, answer 1

If you don’t mind I’d like to have a little salt on my food before it gets any colder.

Correct entry: a little
The error was: (b) a few

my question to this sentence is: what does it mean “before it gets any older”?? is it like… you are so slow to pass me the salt and i can’t stand it anymore?? and 2.) isn’t it a quiet rude saying?? 3.) could you give me please an example for this sentence?

best wishes and thank you

judith

2

Hi Judith,

Thanks for your note - I’ll certainly reply with my comments. But could you first please tell me where this sentence comes from.

Best wishes

Alan

3

hello Alan,

this sentence comes from the test: “errors in sentences what’s wrong with this?-example” test number 3, question 1.

best wishes

judith

4

oh…and it is from a “elementary” test.

judith

5

Hi Judith,

Thanks for coming back on this. No wonder you were having problems with this sentence. It is in fact a typing mistake and should read COLDER and not ‘older’

We will now put this right and thanks for drawing our attention to it.

Best wishes

Alan

6

hello alan,

everything is clear now!! i didn’t think about that it could be a typing mistake. i thought something like “the british houmor”…?h… is always intersting :wink:

best wishes
judith

7

Dear Alan…

we have already come up with a handful of [color=blue]proof-reading tools to probe through the possible errors in spelling as well as in grammar.

But still we lack some [color=blue]vital program with artificial intelligence or something like that which will correct the words in our sentences according to the [color=blue]contextual meanings…

May be I am dreaming for this miracle to happen soon…

8

Hello Alan,

Why it couldn’t be “some salt”,

Maddy

9

Hi maddy,

‘Some salt’ would be a possible alternative. It would be correct - and that is why it is not given as an option in the test. The test can only work if there is just one correct answer.
If ‘some salt’ were given as an option, then there would be two correct answers, which would be misleading.