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- the trees and their wood
the trees and their wood
260
hello, I was repeating Nature today and translated "the trees and their wood" as (sorry I don't have the greek keyboard installed in this computer)
"ta dentra kai ta ksula tous"
which was considered wrong, the correct form written as "to ksulo", in singular form. I'm not sure why. Is "ksulo" a word that is considered to be in singular and plural forms at the same time, like "wood" is in English?
Many thanks!
8 Comments
Well, in some cases, ξύλο is indeed sometimes considered a plural form, for example
This table is made out of wood - Αυτό το τραπέζι είναι φτιαγμένο από ξύλο.
The table could be made out of multiple pieces of wood, but you still use wood instead of woods, because you want to actually indicate the material.
Maybe this is why ξύλα was rejected, because τα δέντρα και το ξύλο τους had the context of "the tress and the material that's made out of them". ^.^
260
Thanks Vasileia put this more confusing. Because what you say is exactly what I had tought, plural trees and plural wood, so τα δέντρα και τα ξύλα τους is what I had said, and this was considered wrong :)
260
OK got it. Singular when we are talking about something general, but can be plural when we go specific... Thank you!