about "many communications"

chance22 · Aug 19, 2012

When I want to say I communicate with people from different areas very often, is it proper to say I have many communications with those people from different areas?
I'm looking forward to your reply.

billmcd · Aug 19, 2012

Gillnetter said:
I believe that you are trying to say that you have "frequent communications" with these people. "frequent" here refers to an event, or events, which occurs over and over. You could say, "I have frequent communications with people from different areas."

I agree with your alternative, but I don't think I would pluralize "communication".

tzfujimino · Aug 19, 2012

I've just visited COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English), and found:

'frequent communication' - 23 citations
'frequent communications' - 1 (and some more here: 13 sentences using frequent communications)

:-D

emsr2d2 · Aug 19, 2012

I wouldn't pluralise "communication" either. I would use "I have/I am in regular communication with ..." perhaps more readily than "frequent communication", although I suppose it's possible for it to be frequent but irregular.

chance22 · Aug 21, 2012

I'm grateful for all of you who gave me suggestions. I have been wondering about a good way to express my idea, and now I get it. Then there's another question: Is it proper to use the collocation of "much communication" or "lots of communication"?

Raymott · Aug 21, 2012

chance22 said:
I'm grateful for all of you who gave me suggestions. I have been wondering about a good way to express my idea, and now I get it. Then there's another question: Is it proper to use the collocation of "much communication" or "lots of communication"?

Yes it can be. I was thinking of "a lot of communication". "Lots of ..." is more colloquial.
"much" is more often used negatively here. "I don't have much communication ..."

chance22 · Aug 21, 2012

Raymott said:
Yes it can be. I was thinking of "a lot of communication". "Lots of ..." is more colloquial.
"much" is more often used negatively here. "I don't have much communication ..."

Thank you for the help. Then there is another question. Since "much" is often used negatively, can "a lot of" be used in formal written English, as in academic writing?

Raymott · Aug 21, 2012

chance22 said:
Thank you for the help. Then there is another question. Since "much" is often used negatively, can "a lot of" be used in formal written English, as in academic writing?

It depends on a lot of factors. I don't use "a lot of" for academic writing. But I probably wouldn't say "He had much communication ..." Perhaps, "He had a great deal of communication ..."
It's not a big point.

chance22 · Aug 22, 2012

Raymott said:
It depends on a lot of factors. I don't use "a lot of" for academic writing. But I probably wouldn't say "He had much communication ..." Perhaps, "He had a great deal of communication ..."
It's not a big point.

Thank you so much!

Rover_KE · Aug 22, 2012

You might also consider 'frequent dialogue'.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dialogue (US also dialog)
▶noun conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or film.
■ discussion directed towards exploration of a subject or resolution of a problem.

Rover

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