It should be "we have many kinds of animals in this zoo"
Take the sentence apart. "we have many animals in the zoo" Are all the animals the same? No, there are different categories of animals. Since the noun "animals" is plural, your noun "kind" needs to be plural.
We have many categories of animals We have many categories of animal
The same holds true for your next sentence. People is plural so again, "kind" needs to be plural. Try substituting "kind" with "many" and see if you notice a difference.
Many people like chocolate Many person like chocolate
Many constitutes more than one. Person is singular. You cant use a singular to describe a plural.
Posts: 9192 | Location: Atlanta, GA, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
I think, maybe, that "kinds of animal" is grammatically similar to "mountains of Canada", for example, or "footprints of a tiger". 'Kinds' would be the subject or object in a sentence and 'of animal' is just a preposition phrase describing 'kinds' - it needn't be plural itself. (But should it be plural or not? Which sounds most natural to you? Actually, to me, "categories of animal" sounds right.)
"Kinds of" is grammatically different from structures like "lots of" or "a lot of" which demand plural count nouns, or non-count nouns. "Kinds" isn't a quantifier, like "many"; it's a noun, like "mountains" or "footprints".
Does the one with 'animals' even make sense grammatically?
I've been thinking hard about this for awhile and I've thought of some things. Is each separated in two different ways? Like this: one goes 'many kinds' of what? 'Many kinds' of animal. The other goes 'many' of what? 'Many' of kinds of animals.
Also, is another difference in that animals singular is saying they have many kinds of individual animals, while animals plural is saying they have many kinds of many animals. So it's just how you're looking at the animals?
Also, wouldn't it be just the same if you replace kinds of with types of?
And can you also say "We have one kind of animals in the zoo?"
Posts: 6525 | Location: Grayson, Georgia, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
'Sort of / kind of / type of are usually followed by an uncountable noun or a singular countable noun with no article, but a / an is sometimes retained in an informal style:
What sort of (a) / kind of (a) / type of (a) dance is that?'
But one of the examples given has a plural noun:
'Well, it’s a sort of jig or reel, danced to very fast time. I don’t know exactly what it is because there are several types of jigs – single jigs, double jigs, slip jigs and hop jigs.'
This seems to be a question of the thinking on the part of the speaker.
Like NNN I would say 'animal'.On analysis I think that's because I would be thinking of 'animal' here as "animalkind", " the animal kingdom". The sentence conveys the image of their being a variety of species of animal there .
Curiously, if the phrase 'all manner of' is substituted for 'many kinds of' I find myself saying 'all manner of animals' automatically perhaps because I would be thinking beyond the strictly zoological and would have sizes, ages and colours , and not simply the species, of the animals in mind.That is why I chose 'all manner'; it suggests a range of all possible characteristics of all the individuals of all species are to be found there.
That thought process happens with 'kind' too So I would say "There are many/all kinds of children in this school" meaning that they are of all ages, colours ,sizes , races, abilities, personalities and fitness, that there are almost all the possibilities, but " In this family you find all kinds of child ". There I'm thinking of the human being being of the one collective unit within which there is some variation , here either of character or of physical and emotional development from baby to toddler to infant to adolescent to adult.They differ within the confines of being all children, all in the family, and all of the same genetic make up though they are of different ages. I would say " all ages of child" in this case too.
I guess it's (kind of) like the difference between 'There was no one there' and 'There were no people there.' Or, 'The staff is large and well-paid' and 'The staff are angry about losing their coffee break.'
You can choose; it depends on whether or not you're thinking singular or plural, mass or count. (Although you can't choose to say 'the staff are large...' unless you mean they need to take it easier on the donuts.)
From "The Written Word": When using "kind" always use a singular object. If the object is plural, then use "kinds".
From How to Speak and Write Correctly: Kind and sort are each singular and require the singular pronouns this and that.
But then from MerriamWebster: Kind may suggest natural grouping. A zoo seemingly having animals of every kind.
But to me it boils down to this. "Kind" is a count common noun and has a plural form. Since a plural count noun refers to more than one person or thing, that which it refers to must also be plural.
This has been a good question to investigate!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Georgia85,
Posts: 9192 | Location: Atlanta, GA, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
And don't you just feel sorry for anyone learning the language ? Some languages have a rigid fixed grammar; the rules of Classical Latin did not change in hundreds of years and the French even maintain an Academy to ensure the strict interpretation of theirs. English seems to make it up as it goes along. It must be the only major language where a grammarian has to start by noting what people say and write and then try to work out a rule from that. Most languages have grammarians laying down the rules and people being expected to fit their speech and writing to conform to those.
There seems to always be a rule being followed but it is the fact that all the native speaker knows is 'the sentence sounds right that way 'without ever having been taught or consciously learning any system. (And having now to sit and think long and hard to work out why they choose one version at one time and a different one at another).
It is, incidentally, the British sensitivity to thinking of numbers that explains the committee or the club or the company , for example, turning from singular to plural in the course of one sentence e.g 'The committee has ruled; it has decided to oppose; they said they had different reasons'
