student asking question

Can I say "in a various way" here instead of "in a variety of ways?" Are these two same thing? What's the difference?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Good try! That's almost correct. The correct way to say it would be "in various ways," not "in a various way." This is because you want to indicate more than one way, so "way" needs to be in the plural form. Generally, the rule is that when you want to indicate more than one of something (a noun), you must add "-s" to the end. Ex: He decorated the cake in various ways. Ex: He decorated the cake in a variety of ways. Ex: She created art in diverse ways.

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