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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 375. The title of today's lesson is

  • do not use "a pair of" in the general sense. Okay. Let's look at the note

  • here. Use "a pair of' in the individual sense for a specific person. You know,

  • probably at a specific time or at a specific event. Okay. Let's continue. Of

  • course with the X, this would be wrong. Why do you always wear a pair of black

  • pants ? All right. Now once you hear always, that immediately implies the general

  • sense because it's you know, all the time. We're not talking about a specific event

  • or a specific time. So why do you always wear a pair of black pants and if you

  • said that, to be honest it sounds like the person is wearing the same black

  • pants. And you may not mean that. They may actually in fact wear different black

  • pants. It's just that they like black pants. So they wear black pants all the

  • time. So here with check this would be correct. Why do you always wear black

  • pants ? That's what we should say. We shouldn't be saying why do you always

  • wear a pair of black pants. All right. Again this is one where you know,

  • especially students of ESL make this mistake. A native speaker instinctively

  • will know that this sounds a little weird. He probably would not say this. All

  • right. Let's continue again here. With the next X. She always wears a pair of

  • sneakers. Again always implies the general sense. So with the check this would be

  • correct. She always wears sneakers . Maybe you know, anytime you see her if she has

  • sneakers on, you never see her with regular shoes. She always wears sneakers.

  • And again it may not be the same pair of sneakers, She might have several. Let's

  • continue. With the X. Again this is wrong. He likes to wear a pair of sunglasses

  • when he goes skiing. Now again it sounds awkward. It sounds weird. It is the general

  • sense because you know, likes means you like to do this all the time. He likes to

  • wear sunglasses when he goes skiing. That

  • should be it. So here with the check this would be correct. All right. Let's

  • continue. And then just a few other examples where we should say a pair of

  • something. I need to buy a new pair of sunglasses. All right. So yeah, this will be

  • you know, a specific event that's coming up. That you're planning to do this. You

  • want to buy a new pair. It's not really the general sense. Or number ... the

  • second one here. With the check. I bought 2 pairs of jeans because they were on

  • sale. This would be you know, probably at a specific time, at a specific event.

  • While the sale was on, he went in and he bought 2 pairs of jeans. Okay. I hope you

  • got it. I hope it was clear. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time.

  • Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 375. The title of today's lesson is

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