rphardu wrote:
Irish poet Seamus Heaney has won a number of prizes for his work, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and two Whitbread Book of the Year awards.
A. Irish poet Seamus Heaney has won a number of prizes for his work, including
B. The number of prizes won by Irish poet Seamus Heaney include
C. Irish poet Seamus Heaney has won numbers of prizes for his work, including
D. The numbers of prizes won by Irish poet Seamus Heaney include
E. Seamus Heaney's Irish poetry has won a number of prizes for him, including
Can poet win the award such as "two whitbread book of the year award", should this type of awards given to books. Ex. "book of the year" award.
OEThis sentence is correct as written. "A number of" is the correct quantity expression when referring to an unspecified number of things.
(A) CORRECT. This answer is correct as written.
(B) "The number of" is used when referring to a specific quantity but we are not given a specific quantity in this sentence; we are provided only with a few examples ("include the Nobel Prize..."). This sentence construction requires "a number of" in order to indicate that we are talking about some unspecified number of prizes. (Furthermore, if "the number of" were correct, it would require using "includes" because it is singular.)
(C) "Numbers of" is never the correct construction. Only "a number of" and "the number of" can be correct. This sentence construction requires "a number of" in order to indicate that we are talking about some unspecified number of prizes.
(D) "The numbers of" is never the correct construction. Only "a number of" and "the number of" can be correct. This sentence construction requires "a number of" in order to indicate that we are talking about some unspecified number of prizes.
(E) The pronoun "him" is meant to refer to Seamus Heaney, but "Seamus Heaney" is not in the sentence - only "Seamus Heaney's Irish poetry". The pronoun has no antecedent. In addition, the passive construction of this sentence makes it unacceptably awkward.