3 ms·
The 'correct' English is "no books by Hemmingway"
by philipwhiuk 2y ago
The 'correct' English is "no books by Hemmingway"
- eesmith 2y agoThat's "Hemingway" ;) I think the original sentence was already pretty weird, since I wouldn't say "My shelf contains no books." making it hard for me to judge what is not weird. However, "Does your shelf contain a book by Hemingway?" sounds equally correct to "No, my shelf contains no book by Hemingway." And equally correct to "My shelf contains no books."
- eesmith 2y agoUpon review, I realized the parallel construction in "No, my shelf contains no book by Hemingway, but it does contain one by Hemmingway" would help smooth things out. More to the point, https://archive.org/details/stephencranebiog00stal/page/40/mode/2up?q=%22contains+no+book+by%22 https://archive.org/details/stephencranebiog00stal/page/40/m... has this real-world example: "Although Crane’s list of books at Brede Place contains no book by James Fenimore Cooper, he obviously knew his Cooper."