Hi everyone,
Can I say, in supermarket to another customer for example: ‘Could you please move forward a bit, so I can put my things on the counter?’
Thanks
Alexandro
This is fine.
It’s not usually a ‘counter’ in a modern supermarket, but a checkout.
What would you say instead of ‘counter’? Surely, checkout is the place where you pay, rather than where your put your items.
Alan
Thanks Alan and Beeesneees.
I’d say the entire thing from the belt to the cash machine to the bag packing area is the checkout – possibly ‘checkout counter’, but not ‘counter’ in isolation, which to me indicates a flat non-moving item.
When I read it I actually imagined a counter within a subsection of a supermarket (say a fish counter, or cheese counter, or whatever). However, if Alexandro was referring to the checkout (which seems likely on re-reading), I would not call that a counter either.
Thanks Dozy. I hadn’t considered the fish/meat/deli counter, etc. Your response makes more sense to me now.
Yes, Dozy I was referring to the checkout! Thanks again Dozy and Beeesneees.
You must be joking.
You must be tired.
The underlined parts of the above sentences are noun(jocking) and adjective(tired). Correct?
Thanks Alan.
You must be joking.
You must be tired.
The underlined parts of the above sentences are noun(jocking) and adjective(tired). Correct?
“tired” is an adjective, but I don’t think “joking” can be a noun here. It looks verbal to me.
“joking” is a verbal.
But verbal is not a part of speech. I want to know what is the part of speech of “joking” in this sentence.
I mean it is a participle.
But as I know participle act as noun in a sentence. So we can say it is noun.
Am I correct?
“-ing” participles can act as nouns (often called “gerunds”), but in your case I do not think “joking” is behaving as a noun. It is purely a verbal participle. “You must be joking” does not mean that you must be a thing named “joking”, it means you must be carrying out the act of “joking”. It is essentially the same use as in “I am joking”, for example. Examples where “joking” is behaving as a noun would be “Enough of your joking!” or “Joking isn’t something we should be doing here”.
So we can not name it by a name part of speech(noun pronoun adjective and so on). Just we can name it verbal(participle).
It is a verb form, specifically a present participle.