An 11 year old pupil asked me today why this isn't correct:
'There are thirty-seven-year-olds in class 2'
The context she gave was a further education establishment (university or similar)and meant there are adults aged 37 in this class. If you can have 'there are seven-year-olds in class 2' isn't this simply changing the number from seven to thirty-seven?
" OMG! There are thirty-seven-year-olds in Class 2! How am I expected to keep up with them?"
It's an usual context but why is it grammatically incorrect?
Hi Paul -
Thanks for your reply. My example is INCORRECT on the government's sample SATS Grammar and Punctuation Paper that has been issued to all school ahead of the actual live SATS on 9th May
The link is
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439299/Sample_ks2_EnglishGPS_paper1_questions.pdf
It's Q.36
Naturally I assume government advisers are correct and I am not
Ah, I see now what was required. Your example was grammatically correct, but it didn't convey the correct intended meaning which is that there are 37 students in the class all of whom are aged 7, so option 2 is the correct one:
"There are thirty seven-year-olds in Class 2".
It's important to separate the number of children in the class from their age, so there is no hyphen between "thirty" and "seven-year-olds".
Incidentally, it's precisely because of this kind of confusion that some style guides recommend using numerals for the quantity of people:
"There are 30 seven-year-olds in Class 2".
But that wasn't an option so you'd have to stick with words, in this case "thirty".
Paul
It's a grammar test - there's no associated context in SATs papers so there can't be a correct intended meaning. It shouldn't be open to contextual interpretation and so should either be grammatically correct or incorrect. I accept that 30 seven-year-old children is much more likely in a Class 2 but, if the grammar is correct in a grammar test, then surely this should also be an acceptable answer?
Dave
Yes, it should. When I initially looked at the link you sent me, I just skimmed the test as I was busy doing something else. I've now gone right through it and there are some other weaknesses too.
Regarding Q36, I can only imagine that they expect students to apply a degree of savvy and spot that only the second answer is plausible, even though the fourth one is also grammatically correct. But I agree with you; it shouldn't be that way; it's ambiguous.
I'll send them an email pointing out the flaw in Q36 and the other criticisms I have of the test.
Thanks Paul
I still think the fourth answer is also very plausible: an adult education centre/university class (Class 2) would have thirty-seven-year-olds. There's no context given and so it's all about the grammar. While it could be argued that the vast majority of 10/11 year-olds taking the tests would immediately assume seven-year-olds were in a class, rather than adults, that assumption shouldn't play any part in this grammar-specific test.
If it mentioned the context as 'Class 2 in a primary school' then fine, but otherwise I think it's a correct answer marked as incorrect.
Thank you for your time and expertise in response. I've also heard back from other grammar experts I emailed at the same time, all of whom agree that the sentence is grammatically correct. I haven't yet heard back from the STA though and my Year 6 class will be extremely interested in their response.