# EN: Est-ce que quelqu'un n'a pas son matériel avec lui ?



## G54250

Hey guys !

I'm having a terrible doubt ! How would you say "est-ce que quelqu'un n'a pas son matériel avec lui?" 

My try: "does anyone not / does not anyone have his materials (with him) ?" don't know why but I've got the feeling that it doesn't sound very natural ...  

Cheers !


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## Sakukoivu

Les deux marchent, mais ils insinuent deux sentiments differents.
On dit "Does anyone not have their materials with them?" avec une peu d'emphase sur le "not" quand on veut vérifier que tout le monde a son matériel. (un expression plutôt neutre)
"Doesn't anyone have their materials with them?" est plutôt utilisé quand on voit que beaucoup de monde n'a pas son matériel et on veut bien s'assurer que quelqu'un l'a. (c'est dit habituellement au ton exaspéré)
J'espére que vous compreniez mon français


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## G54250

Your French is very good, no worries  and your explanation, very enlightening ! Just another question, I thought that material in English was in the plural in the sense "workbook, textbook, rubber, pencils" etc. ...


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## sound shift

As I recall, when I was at school, teachers would usually say "Is there anyone who hasn't brought their* XXXXX** with them?" or "Are there any of you who haven't brought your XXXXX** with you?"

* "Their" because there were girls and boys in the class.

** I'm not sure our teachers said "material" or "materials". Possibly, they used a more general term, such as "things".


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## Sakukoivu

c'est ma faute, je n'ai pas vu le pluriel dans ton example  La bonne grammaire dit qu'on doit utilise le pluriel dans ce cas, mais moi je pense que "materials" a un son bien désagréable, et parfois je dis inconsciemment "material", mais ce n'est pas correcte


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## timboleicester

Bonjour à tous....

If you say material(s) to a group of students either you are talking to students about to make something with fabric or some other quite precise activity... if you are addressing a class of kids and you are wondering whether they have their books, pens, pencils etc then the word you need is "things" or "stuff" or maybe "equipment" not materials this side of the Atlantic.


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## G54250

Cheers everyone!

any chance "materials" in the sense of books pencils etc. might be of US/Canadian usage?


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## Aoyama

I have a problem with "Does anyone not have *their* materials with *them*?" . What about ""Does anyone not have his/her materials with him/her ?" .
Same thing with "Is there anyone who hasn't brought *their*/his her materials with him/her ".


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## Oddmania

Aoyama said:


> I have a problem with "Does anyone not have *their* materials with *them*?" . What about ""Does anyone not have his/her materials with him/her ?" .
> Same thing with "Is there anyone who hasn't brought *their*/his her materials with him/her ".



This is called _the singular they_, and is often used when the gender of a person isn't known  It's been discussed a lot of times, you should find plenty of threads about it.


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## Aoyama

Yes Oddmania, thank you, you're very right. Some elements here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they .


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## Sakukoivu

I'm trying to remember back to my school days. I think in art class the teacher may have used the word "material(s)", however I can't seem to find another example. Come to think of it, "things" is definitely more natural sounding, even on this side of the Atlantic.


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## soulzy

How about 'supplies' instead of 'material/materials'? Materials does sound more industrial 

Is there anyone who DOES NOT have their supplies with them?  

or

Does anyone NOT have their supplies with them?


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## blacklagoon

I was taught that "Does evesryone have his or her supplies..." is correct because everyone is singular.  But what I commonly hear is "Does everyone have their supplies...."  I also hear people say "that" instead of "who" as a pronoun to replace a person, for example, "There are many students that eat bagged lunch" instead of There are many students who eat bagged lunch.  Et en français, on m’a expliquée que « matérial » is a construction term et que  le mot «fournitures » signifie ce qu’il faut dans une salle de classe (crayon, gomme à effacer, etc.).  Est-ce que je suis fossilisée ?


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## soulzy

I'm no grammarian, but I believe you can use either, depending on the context, when you're dealing with an unknown gender.

e.g. I'd say, The customer will come and pick up their supplies later on today
but I wouldn't say, "The customer will come and pick up his or her supplies later on today, even though it may be grammatically correct.

In the same way, I'd say "Does anyone NOT have their supplies" versus, "Does anyone NOT have his or her supplies"


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## Aoyama

For this discussion, see above #9 & #10 "singular they".


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## jann

In a US elementary school classroom (under age ~10), I think you'd be likely to hear "Is there anyone who didn't come prepared (for class)?"


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## SunnyS

G54250 said:


> Cheers everyone!
> 
> any chance "materials" in the sense of books pencils etc. might be of US/Canadian usage?



Certainly not in the US. (books, things, supplies, stuff, yes)


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## fan-tasma

Hello! 

You could say it like this, "Does no one have their materials with them?".


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## jann

Welcome, Fan-tasma. 


fan-tasma said:


> You could say it like this, "Does no one have their materials with them?".


I'm sorry to contradict you, but I really don't see how that could work.

As quite a number of anglophones have indicated above, we don't use "materials" like this in English (at least not in any of the places that the anglophones who have participated here live). Using "school materials" might be comprehensible, but plain "materials" is not.  

Furthermore, "does no one have..." is only appropriate if the *vast majority* of the students are obviously unprepared for class, while "quelqu'un n'a pas...?" is for a situation where almost all of the students do in fact have what they need.


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