Immediate Response: This post (based on indian reluctance) contains 5 inter-related questions & 2 split examples… Making this tricky usage very hard to solve with examples.

If the occurrence described is generalized, then the plurality of objects is also generalized.’ If

a person or a person is sitting in the same room as you are using a cell phone in the next room, what does that mean? Since

the description is specific to 1 occurrence, the plural of “people” and singular “phone” should be treated literally. Why do people use two mobile phones at an same time?

It is similar to using a laptop or laptop to go online, but now phones are helping. Also

in English ” Since the situation is generalized the details involved are also generalized to some extent. 😉 The speaker references both plural men/people and plural “cell-phones” and underscores the fact that this description is not specific. They don’t care about the relationship between the number of phones and the number of people watching movies.

For reading and listening to English watch for “specific or general” indicators, etc. If you can’t manage specifics, then there’s a good way. This is common enough.

What’s a good “specific & literal” or “general and non-literal” indicator for speaking or writing?

specific & literal, each man has a backpack “I saw

two men carrying a backpack. How can you understand “each” without a clarification word says they are both holding the same backpack. I

have often seen men carrying backpacks ” general & non-literal, there was more than one occasion, there was more than 1 man, there was more than 1 backpack…

Must, being formed from an old preterite like might, should, could, and would (note the final –t/d suffix), becomes as subjunctive as it can get. What is the present form and what appears only in fixed formulae (So moto na be)? – John Lawler Jul 13 at 18:31

(Citation added)

@JohnLawler. What is your answer to my question? Could you please paste my answer into a comment so I can close this question without using search terms that make sense? By Hal Apr 13 at 18:54

Mister Chairman! I motion for section

to close.