What's the answer?

Mamo

What is the correct answer for the following question?

_______________ have you got?     Ten eggs.
(How many / What)

It's the exam question of my daughter.  She think it should be "What" as if we use "How many", there should be an object after it.  Is she correct?  Please comment.  Thanks.   

charlene

其實後面的 "Ten" 係一個 hint, 老師想問關於數量的問題,所以佢想學生答 "How many".

相反,如果老師問" __________ have you got? Eggs.
咁就肯定係 "What".

這條題目老師出得唔好囉.  其實兩個答案都可以解得通. D 老師正一死蠢,讀死書. (唔好話你個囡知,我咁鬧 D 老師).

你個囡話如果用 "How many", there should be an object after it 的情況會係:
How many eggs you have/got? Ten.

下回你話我哋知,老師點樣為佢的"百搭題"打完場.
如果佢兩個答案都話啱,咁這間學校/老師係"跨啦啦",無因為自己的疏忽而抺殺另一個答案的可能性.

如果佢哋指定要答其中一個答案,咁佢哋係要學生讀死書,扼殺小朋友的思想創意空間.

其實分數無咗,唔緊要.最緊要你解釋清楚比你囡囡知,在英文文法上兩個答案都係通的,只係視乎佢想表達甚麼意思.  
不過下次要醒 D, 估吓老師的"心意". 亦要睇吓上文下理.

hinhinmummy

我估應該係how many, 因為答案係ten eggs.
如果用what have you got?, 答案就應該答egg.

但係我覺得條題目應該係______ eggs have you got? ten eggs.

而不係______ have you got?

不知岩不岩呢? 有答案時, 可不可以講返比我知?

可不可以講你個女讀幾多年班?

AKLAMY

Mamo 寫道:
What is the correct answer for the following question?

_______________ have you got?     Ten eggs.
(How many / What)

I would choose "What"

(1) What have you got? Ans: Ten eggs
(2) How many eggs have you got? Ans: Ten

Mamo

我都覺得這條題目老師出得唔好.  It seems that both answers are acceptable.  My daughter is P.2 and she has learnt "What have you got?" but the answer in her worksheet is only a single "subject", e.g a book.
At first, I also think the answer should be "how many" as there's the number "Ten".   However, as what my daughter said "How many have you  got" 唔通順.  She choose "What".  I have asked several friends and got different answer.

I'm not care about the mark but just want to know grammatically, should there be a "subject" after "How many" in the question like this?  This afternoon, I know the answer should be "What" as her classmate just tell her mother that the word "How many" was used in another question.  Ha Ha!   

AKLAMY

Mamo,
"What have you got? Ans: Ten eggs."

這條問題及答案很通順, 好像沒有什麼problem呢~~
Example: What have you got? Ans:  Ten eggs 或 eggs 或ten white eggs 或 white eggs...etc..

However, the natural way of this conversation is more likely to be: What have you got? Ans: Eggs

Jsmami

Absolutely agree with Amy's last reply.  

If someone asks u, "What have u got?".  U answer : Eggs (rarely say Ten eggs).

If someone asks u, "How many eggs have u got?" U answer : Ten (often leave out the word eggs).

Just out of curiosity, is the one who asked this question Chinese?  If yes, I think the answer of "How many" is what he/she is expecting !

katiema

Mamo,

sorry, 我多餘的問問, 條問題旁有有關的圖嗎?? 怎樣表示的.

thank you

katiema

麟媽媽

The answer should be: "What"

justjust

It should be "what".

It doesn't really matter whether the answer is "ten eggs" or "eggs" or "ten big beautiful brown eggs".  One is free to answer whatever comes in his head when faced with such a question "What have you got?".  In fact, "ten eggs" or "ten big beautiful brown eggs" would fit in a natural conversation even better than simply "eggs".

Given a choice of "What have you got?" and "How many have you got?",  the better answer would be the former one.

charlene

Really?  So what's wrong with the sentence:

"How many have you got? Ten eggs."

I assumed they were discussing about eggs and quantity.  And then the teacher asked the student "How many have you got?" and then the student answered "Ten eggs."

The same as "How many are there?" which I can find in the Oxford dictionary.  There's no subject follows "How many".

In another scenario, the teacher did not know what do the student have.  So therefore she asked "What have you got?"  The student answered "Ten eggs."

Therefore, I would say both are true.

When I typed both sentences in the MS Word, both passed the grammar check.  

justjust

Really?  So what's wrong with the sentence:

"How many have you got? Ten eggs."

There is nothing wrong, except there is the presumption on the context that there was a ongoing conversation about eggs, which we don't know for a fact.

Whereas in the second scenario, the precondition that the teacher and the student were talking about eggs ang quantity doesn't exist.  Given no further info., it would be better to take the question and answer as straight forward ones rather than making assumptions.  Therefore I would still choose "What have you got?".  I also amend my previous posting of "The model answer is definitely the former one" to "the better answer would be the former one."

Nevertheless, you got your point there.  We can't say "How many have you got?" is wrong.

charlene

Hi justjust,

Thanks for discussing.  (As I really want to know if there's any mistake.)  It's true that without any information given, we shouldn't make too many presumption and should pick the straight forward answer.
Yes, I understand that's the way of HK education.  They always have a model answer.  If you don't answer the designed answer, teacher won't give you marks.  That's the difference between HK education and overseas.
In overseas, they also have a model answer but teacher tends to use it as a guide line.  They'll give you marks as long as you covered the point and showed that you understood.  And they always emphasis "critical thinking" - always asked the question "Why?".  But in HK, if we keep asking our teacher "Why?", they'll think you want to make troubles, either you're too stupid or want to show off your intelligence.  (It happened when I was small.)  I hope they've more opened attitude today.
That's why I hope they can also point out the possibility of the second answer.

cwcw

'many' is a quantifier and normally there should be a noun following it.

If the question is within a context, meaning that there's some cohesion going on, the ans should be 'how many' without 'eggs'. If it's not contectualized, 'what' is correct but 'how many' is wrong.

In the latter case, it menas the teacher lacks sufficient training in the Language or s/he overlooks the problem or it's a bad school.

For discussion purpose, the dictionary is not of much help in this case as, I think, it's everyday English and we don't need to be told "It's I.' or 'It's me.' is more correct.

Jokey2828

I think the question was designed to trick the students and their parents. By looking at the answer "ten eggs", we tend to choose "How many". So in a simple question-and-answer situation, it is wrong.

I agree that in an informal situation or when the context is well understood, the object can be left out after "How many".

Jokey2828

Tszfungma

I go for "what" too. The reason is as explained by other members like Amy and Justjust.

Have you got the answer from the teacher yet?

bleung

Follow this conversation:

A:What have you got today?
B: I've got some eggs.
A: How many have you got?
B: Ten

By deduction, the answer should be 'What'.   The reply of 'ten eggs' indicates that the one asking the question ' ____________ have you got?' has no idea of what the object is.

If the question comes from an mathematics problem, then the correct answer is 'How many'.  I wonder if the teacher copied this from an English maths book.  

Mamo

Hi every mummy,

My daughter has checked the paper and the answer is "What".   As told before, there's another question using the answer "How many" already.  I think they just use the "answer" once .   We would not get the the exam paper back so we can't discuss this question with the teacher.   

Tszfungma

I just recall another interesting one which is asked  by the parents of p.1 girl.

Q1. He is a boy. She is a girl.
Q2. It is an apple. It is an orange.

The girl is requested to use "and" or "but". My answer is "and" for Q2 & "but" for Q1. They still can't tell me if I am right or not.

What do you guys think? Just find it interesting to share.