Perhaps some readers will remember my discussion of colours in Column 7 (Talking about colours). Using the language in Column 7, and putting it together with the language in Column 11 and Column 12, allows us to talk about clothes, curtains, wallpaper, and so on, in a very detailed and interesting way.

In this Column, I will give some examples of how we can create rich, detailed, and interesting language using the grammar and vocabulary of patterns and colours.

Here are the examples:

1. I bought a light blue shirt with bluish green polka dots.
2. I bought a creamy white blouse with banana yellow diamonds and dark blue wavy lines.
3. It was a sort of moss green hat with a pattern of brownish red fish.
4. She was wearing a strawberry red skirt with a pattern of white flowers, and a salmon pink blouse with blue and green wavy diagonal stripes.

In Columns 40, 41, and 42, I wrote about Focussed Learning, and said that Focussed Learning is "learning by linking grammar and vocabulary to specific, useful situations".

In Columns 43 and 44, I wrote about creating your own original examples of language. I wrote that "we only start to learn a foreign language when we start to make our own original examples of language".

I hope that readers will remember these points, and stand up from their computers, go to their wardrobes and closets, pull out some clothes, and start to describe these clothes in detail.

If you do this, you will immediately be confronted with the vocabulary and grammar of "a pair of 〜s". In that case, please look at Columns 23 and 24.

If I were looking at a group of musicians on stage, and wanted to say what they were doing, which of the above would I use?

Let us consider the meanings of the sentences in the title of this Column.

1) "They are playing their guitars."

This sentence would suggest either of the following:

(a) that each person is playing his or her guitar. My interest would be on the fact that each person was playing his or her guitar.
(b) that the group, as a whole, owns the guitars, and that each person in the group is playing one, or more, of the guitars the group owns.

2) "They are playing the guitars,"

This sentence would suggest that there are a number of guitars, and that each person is picking up different guitars, and then playing them. Perhaps the group of people are trying to choose the best guitars from a large number of guitars.

3) "They are playing the guitar."

This tells us the ACTION that the group is doing. This would be the normal way of expressing in English the situation outlined in the first paragraph.

In the next Column, I will continue to discuss this area of grammar.

The reason why "They are playing the guitar" is the normal way to express the situation outlined in the previous Column is because "play the guitar" is like one verb.

In the same way, "play golf" is like one verb. In fact, there is a verb "golf", which can be used in the same situations as "play golf":

I am going to play golf this afternoon.
I am going to golf this afternoon.

Therefore, since "guitar" is like part of a verb, it cannot be plural (like a fully independent noun).

Here are some expressions that are like one verb:

eat dinner = dine　夕食をとる
eat breakfast = breakfast　朝食をとる
give someone an injection = inject someone　誰かに注射をする
give someone a smile = smile at someone　誰かに微笑みかける
give someone a kiss = kiss someone　誰かにキスをする
make a mistake = mistake/be mistaken　誤りを犯す

Understanding this idea of verb + noun being like one verb, can help is to solve some "singular or plural puzzles", as in the previous Column.

Here are some sentences in which the noun which forms part of the object of the sentence is not in the plural because it is like part of the verb:

The waiter will soon serve us dinner.
（給仕はすぐに食事を持ってくるだろう）
The doctor gave us all an injection.
（医者は私たちみんなに注射を打った）
Everyone gave us a kind smile.
（誰もが私たちに親切そうに微笑みかけた）
Mary, Peter, and John were careless, so they made a mistake.
（メアリーとピーターとジョンは注意が足りなくて誤りを犯した）

If you start checking words for the five senses in dictionaries, thesauruses, and so on, you will soon notice that the most important sense, in terms of the number of vocabulary items which are associated with it, is the sense of sight.

This is not very surprising. Sight is perhaps seen as the most precious of the senses by most people.

In this Column, as you can see below, I give a list of verbs associated with the sense of sight. (Notice that the verbs with the same number of "*" are in the different groups. )

The Sense of Sight

NEUTRAL

see 見える／目に入る
witness 目撃する
observe 気がつく*
perceive 気づく
notice 気がつく**
behold （不思議な物などを）見る
lay/set eyes on （特に初めて）見る
view 眺める
recognise 見分けがつく
spy （遠くのものを）発見する

ACTIVE

look （注意して）見る
observe 観察する*
watch 動きをじっと見る／見張る
regard じっと見る
gaze (at) じっと見つめる
glance at ちらっと見る／一目見る
look at よく見る
note 注目する／目を留める
scan （新聞を）ざっと見る
scan for 目を凝らして見る
eye （不審そうに）じろじろ見る／色目を使う
make out 見分ける
discern つきとめる／見分ける***
survey 見晴らす／見渡す／概観する
detect 見つけ出す／見破る
discover 発見する****
inspect 検査する／視察する
examine 調べる／検査する
pay attention to 注意深く見る
view 目を凝らして見る
stare (at) じっと見つめる／じろじろ眺める
scrutinize 詳しく見る／細かに調べる

CHANCE

come across ふと見つける／出くわす
come on （偶然に）見つける／（偶然に）出会う
notice （偶然に）気がつく**
discern （遠くのものを）見つける***
catch sight of （不意に）見つける
get a glimpse of ちらりと見える／一瞬目に入る
discover （偶然に）発見する／楽しみに気づく****

By the way, if you look carefully at English vocabulary, you will find out that the senses which have the most vocabulary items associated with them are in the following order:

First: sight
Second: touch
Third: hearing
Fourth: taste