Help...

Posted by TheFallen on August 09, 2002

In Reply to: Help... posted by Shan on August 08, 2002

: I am in the midst of editing a document which must retain British usage of English. There are inconsistencies regarding subject/predicate agreement. I'm wondering if anyone here could help me with the rules regarding same.

: For instance, when "the company" or "management" is the suject of the sentence, should the predicate, indeed be plural, rather than singular, as it would be in American English?

: Examples:

: Brit: The company were engaged in selling their assets.
: Amer: The company was engaged in its assets.

: Brit: Management were thrilled.
: Amer: Management was thrilled.

: Am I correct in my assumptions, here? Is there a rule by which I may operate on this document?

: Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

: Regards.

In my (British) opinion, it's more about the difference between the strictly correct and the colloquially used. To look at your two examples, I'd always use "the company was engaged...", but when it comes to "management", though strictly speaking, it's a singular subject and therefore should govern a singular verb, to say "management were pleased..." to me reads more easily.

Somewhere in the recent archives (unless it got trashed during the great disk crash disaster) there's a discussion on allowable plural verb forms with apparently singular subjects. Someone may be able to provide the link.

• Singular/plural verbs R. Berg 08/09/02
  • Singular/plural verbs Captain America 08/10/02
    • Singular/plural verbs Alexander Bahnev 08/10/02