If you had a million dollars, what are ( the???) five things you will do with the money?
1) Can I make it "If you have a million dollars" and not "If you had a million dollars"?
2) Can I place "the" before "five" and if I can, can it cause the meaning to differ?
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1) Can I make it "If you have a million dollars" and not "If you had a million dollars"?
- If you did that, you should change "you will do" to "you are going to do"
2) Can I place "the" before "five" and if I can, can it cause the meaning to differ?
Yes, the meaning changes. It says there are exactly five things you can do with the money.
Perhaps the person was told to make a list of five things, and you are asking about the five
things he has written on your list.
Without the "the," you are leaving open the possibility that
the person could do any number of things, and you are asking for five examples.
If I respond saying "the one thing," I'm telling that it's the ONLY thing I will do.
I would answer "One thing I'll do (is whatever)." I could follow up with "and then I'd buy my mom and dad a new house, and then I'd take a trip, and then I'd just see what made sense after that."
But if I said "The one thing I'll do is make a donation," that implies that all of my money is going there - it's the ONLY I'll do.
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Thank you. Your answer makes very good sense, but if you and I are sitting around a table and having this conversation, I would include the "the" in front of "one thing" in my response because I am mentioning the one thing that has been mentioned in the question. Right? The case of a prior mentioning.
How about if a teacher gave out a sheet and in it, there was a question like this, how would you answer?
One or two?
Q: If you had a milliion dollars, what are three things you would you do with it?
1. Three things that I would do with it are buy a house, donate some to an organization and buy a box of chocolate with what's left.
2. The three things that I would do with it are buy a house, donate some to an organization and buy a box of chocolate with what's left over.
Additional Q:
1. a box of chocolate or a box of chocolates?
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For the first one, 1.
Additional Q:
1. if the box is made out of chocolate, the earlier. If you're talking about a box filled with chocolates, the latter.
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