Please take a field trip in your mind with me back to the fourth grade.
Choose the best answer of the words listed in parentheses.
1. The class (was, were) rather noisy today.
2. My family (is, are) quite excited about my upcoming visit.
3. The team (is, are) playing three games this week..
If you are an American, I bet you chose the first choice each time. But if you were British, you would probably choose the second.
It seems that here, our collective singular nouns are instead treated as plural - with subject-verb agreement changing accordingly. I must say, it just makes me want to scream.
Oh well, I guess if it drives me too crazy they can put me in hospital until I regain my grammar sanity.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
you could come see me at the psychiatric ward!!! wahoo! :) ao
Yes, I get extremely annoyed whilst reading British books and running across this little issue. OR whilst teaching English to students who have studied "British" all their lives. It's hard to make allowances for situations like this when everything in my American body is shuddering.
Post a Comment