Author Topic: Singular/Plural  (Read 7800 times)

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Singular/Plural
« on: January 09, 2013, 05:25:23 PM »
Hi there!
 
Happy New Year!

Can you please clarify the following;

Do the following words take singular verbs and other singular forms like "is, does, has?"

Anything, anybody, anyone, somebody, someone, everybody, everyone, no-one, all of them, another one, each, either.

Do the following words take plural verbs and other plural forms like, "are, do, have?"

Both, few, many, others, several.

Thank you,
Annelize

Joe Carillo

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Re: Singular/Plural
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2013, 04:54:19 PM »
The answer to both of your questions is undoubtedly yes, but I think it will be more instructive if those words that you enumerated are formally identified and classified according to usage.

Those words are indefinite pronouns—pronouns that refer to an unspecified person, thing, or amount, such as “anybody” or “anyone” for no matter what person, “anything” for no matter what thing, and “enough” for as much or as many as needed. They are distinct from definite pronouns, which replace nouns whose identity has been clearly given, such as the personal nouns “I,” “you,” and “she” for specifically named or identified persons; and the demonstrative pronouns “this” and “that” for a person, thing, or idea that’s present or near or that has just been mentioned.

By function, indefinite pronouns are classified into quantifiers or modifiers that limit number or quantity, such as “some,” “any,” or “several”; universals or modifiers that refer to an entire group or concept, such as “all,” “every,” and “each”; and partitives or modifiers that indicate a non-specific quantity, such as “either,” “neither,” and “anyone.” Many of the indefinite pronouns can also serve as determiners, which are words or group of words that introduce a noun to denote an indefinite quantity or a definite but unknown people and objects, such as “several” in “several ships” and “a lot of” in “a lot of participants.”

Having already mapped the domain of indefinite pronouns, we can now take up the matter of which of them are always singular and which are always plural.

The indisputably singular indefinite pronouns are these: “another,” “anybody”/“anyone,” “anything,” “each,” “either,” “enough,” “everybody”/“everyone,” “everything,” “less,” “little,” “much,” “neither,” “nobody”/“no one”, “nothing,” “one,” “other,” “somebody”/“someone,” and “something.” They always take the singular form of verbs, as in “You’ve made so many mistakes today and another is unacceptable” and “Nothing scares me more than meeting a drug-crazed gunman in the street.”

On the other hand, the indisputably plural indefinite pronouns are the following: “both,” “few,” “fewer,” “many,” “others,” “several,” and “they.” They always take the plural form of verbs, as in “You can assign me to Manila or Jakarta; both are acceptable to me” and “Fifty applicants applied for the job and several have been shortlisted.”

There are indefinite pronouns, though, that can be singular or plural depending on context. They are “all,” “any,” “more,” “most,” “some,” and “such.” For instance, “all” is singular in sense in the sentence “All is fair in love and war” but plural in sense in “We expect exactly 120 participants in this convention; all have arrived.” In the same token, “more” is notionally singular in “This is all the money I have right now but there is more in our joint savings account” but notional plural in “Only six trainees are with us now but more are joining us this next week.”

Still debated today is whether the indefinite pronoun “none” should always be treated as singular. Since “none” means “no one” and “one” is obviously singular, some argue that it should always take a singular verb in the context of countable nouns, as in “We interviewed nine applicants but none has met our expectations.” Grammatically, however, there’s nothing wrong in using “none” in the plural as well depending on context and emphasis, as in “We interviewed nine applicants but none have met our expectations.”

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Re: Singular/Plural
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2013, 04:16:35 PM »
Hi there,

My goodness, or, as we say in Afrikaans:
 "Sjoe!" It will take me days to study your answer!!! :D

Thank you very much.

I sent an e-mail to the person that is handling the orders for your books.  He has not replied yet.  Must I give some more time? Will he get back to me?

Have a nice day!

Mwita Chacha

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Re: Singular/Plural
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2013, 01:56:36 PM »
I've failed to understand why ''they'' has been mentioned in this thread in the same breath as other indefinite pronouns. My sense is that ''they'' falls under the category of definite pronouns, pronouns used to represent a noun that has been mentioned before already.

Joe Carillo

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Re: Singular/Plural
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2013, 09:20:36 AM »
You’re correct in your appreciation of “they” as falling under the category of definite pronouns. Indeed, it’s a third person pronoun that’s normally and commonly used in the sense of “those ones.” As such, it serves as the plural of “he,” “she,” or “it” or is used to refer to a group of two or more individuals that are not all of the same sex or gender. However, “they” in the generic sense of “people” is also used as an indefinite subject without an antecedent, as in this sentence used to begin an exposition: “They are the happiest people on earth, and I’m referring to those who are truly loved and are truly loved in return.” Here, the pronoun “they” actually has no antecedent noun, and even the pronoun “those” that refers to it later is also an indefinite pronoun.

It is in grammatical situations like this that “they” works as an indefinite pronoun. Of course, some grammarians object to this usage on the ground that every pronoun must have an antecedent pronoun, but in actual usage, the indefinite pronoun “they” is considered standard and valid for all kinds context.