Re: French and German (jara: An introduction)

Henrik Theiling scripsit:

> But as I said, it is not 'many' of them, just 'some'.  Or, well, a
> subset of no given quantity.  That's why I stumbled when I read
> 'many'.  'There are dogs that ...' is what it expressed by 'manch ein
> Hund'.
>
> Or is that what 'many a dog' expressed, too?  (I did not know that
> construction in English, so I'm helpless here.)
No, "many" has its full semantics in this construction: what's archaic
is the use of the sg. rather than the pl. with it.  (Not *very* archaic,
either.)

Googling finds "Many a dog walked only in the yard is panic stricken
if the need ever arises to walk on a busy street." which is in every
way, except flavor, equivalent to "Many dogs walked ... are ...".

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