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Subject:Collective nouns revisited From:"A. J. Fite" <ajfite -at- MAIL -dot- TELIS -dot- ORG> Date:Wed, 18 Jun 1997 08:23:33 -0700
Everyone,
I have a follow-up question about the recent discussion about collective
nouns. This discussion dealt with the emerging trend for speakers of
American English to pair collective nouns with singular verbs ("the staff
is"), while speakers of British English combined collective nouns with
plural verbs ("the staff are").
My question: is a company name a collective noun? In other words, would it
be appropriate for speakers of British English to say "IBM are" or
"Microsoft were?"
Thanks,
Anita Fite
ajfite -at- mail -dot- telis -dot- org
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