RE: job-hunt weirdness

Subject: RE: job-hunt weirdness
From: Michael West <WestM -at- ap -dot- aurecongroup -dot- com>
To: "Lauren" <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 16:43:36 +1000

Lauren wrote:

> I have, ... er, HAS, never heard that a plural of things should be
treated
> as a collective noun in every case because there is a case where the
plural
> of those things is collective noun. My eyes HAS seen many things, but
this
> is getting the better of me.
-

----------------------
As an American-trained tech writer working in Australia, I had to do
quite a bit of ear-adjusting to get used to the more frequent use of
plural verbs with collective nouns in Australian and British English.

For example, in the US we would normally write "Our team is winning", and
if we wrote "Our team are winning" many readers would waste no time in
telling us how illiterate we are.

But in Australian and British English, both are standard and correct, the
difference being entirely "notional". That is, if we are thinking of "our
team" as an entity, we say "the team is"; and if we think of the team as
several individuals, we say "the team are."

--
Mike







Disclaimer - http://www.aurecongroup.com/apac/disclaimer/




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References:
RE: job-hunt weirdness: From: Lauren

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