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.
>