Re: Question about plurals.

sprocket schrieb:
Einde O'Callaghan wrote:

Virtually all nouns that refer to groups behave in this way. Take for example the word "company": "Our company is based in the South-west of England. We supply high-quality widgets to the widget-processing industry."

That's a poor example, as the "we" refers back to the group of people represented by "our".

But it also works if I talk about "My company ... We supply ..." or "Company X ... They ..." - so I disagree that the "we" refers back to "our" - but I will accept that the example is potentially confusing.

As an English teacher in EFL sector I often have to deal with questions where plural pronouns are sued to refer back to a group where the word is actually in the singular. This pehnomenon is also referred to in guides to usage such as Michael Swan's "Modern English Usage".

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

But the core is true. You'll hear "The majority are" more often than "is" and "The RAF were bombing Berlin", not "was". But always "a mob was burning and looting". There may be a principle to be distilled from all this, but I doubt it.

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