make an excuse與make excuses的差別

Question

請問make an excuse與make excuses的差別<動詞片語可以有單復數意義有差別嗎?

那by bicycle與by bicycles是一樣的道理嗎

Answer 1

請問make an excuse與make excuses的差別<動詞片語可以有單復數意義有差別嗎? -----
"make an excuse" 和 "make excuses" 意義差不多，只是在顧慮到主詞的單複數的情況下，為了語意邏輯上的連貫，會考慮句子是用前者或是後者，這用例句來看更清楚：

１．John was late and he made up an excuse. (約翰遲到，編了一個理由)
２．John was late and he made up excuses. (約翰遲到，編了不只一個理由(可能為了取信於人))
３．Many students were late and they made excuses. (許多學生遲到了，且(各自)都編了理由(故有各種不同的理由))
４．Many students were late and they made an excuse. (許多學生遲到了，且都編了理由，或者都編了一個同樣的理由)

至於，”by + 交通工具”此一片語，已經是固定的意義。本來交通工具都是可數的詞，照文法來說，都要把名詞的單複數表達清楚，但接在”by”後就變成例外了，原貌呈現，就不加任何東西，所以就有：by train / by bus / by car / by bike / by ship / by plane / by boat等。但”by bus”可以換成 “on a bus” 、”by car”=”in a car”等等，就又回復到類似”make an excuse”的情形：
Many students come to school by bike. = Many students come to school on bikes. (許多學生騎鐵馬上學(同學各有自己的單車))
John comes to school by bike. = John comes to school on a bike. (約翰騎鐵馬上學(約翰只騎一部))，也可能說”John comes to shool on bikes.”，但這就特別有意思，可能指的是他路上換腳踏車啦，或一手騎一手牽另一部啦等等的，這是特別狀況下正確的說法。

Answer 2

當然有押~

前者make an excuse是表示撒一個謊(單數)

後者make excuses表示撒很多謊(複數)