Author Topic: plural or singular?  (Read 4701 times)

jeanne

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plural or singular?
« on: September 23, 2010, 04:21:42 PM »
Hi!

I'd like to ask if the following sentences are indeed grammatically correct in terms of subject-verb agreement:

Inches are the smallest measurement of length in the British System.

Miles are the largest unit of length in the British System.

Seconds are the smallest unit of time in the British System.
Seconds are the basic unit of time in the Metric System.

Years are the largest unit of time in the British System.

Ounces are the smallest unit of mass in the British System.

Tons are the largest unit of mass in the British System.

Also, in the sentence:  "There are 5,280 feet in every mile. 1 mi = 5280 ft."  Should the numeral 5280 be written as 5,280 or is it also acceptable NOT to put a comma between 5 and 2?

Thank you in advance for your response!

Jeanne

Joe Carillo

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Re: plural or singular?
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2010, 11:47:41 PM »
No, Jeanne, it’s not grammatically correct to state the term for a unit of measure in its plural form when it is being defined. In your first example, in particular, the grammatically correct way is to state the term in its singular form followed by the definition, as follows: “The inch is the smallest measurement of length in the British System.” The same grammatical pattern needs to be observed when defining all the other units of measure you enumerated: “The mile is…”, “The second is…”, “The year is…”, “The ounce is…”, and “The ton is…” All units of measure are notionally singular and need to be treated as grammatically singular as well to ensure subject-verb agreement. When modified by a specific quantity, however, a unit of measure is stated in the singular when the quantity is 1 or less than 1, as in “1 second” and “0.5 second”; then in the plural for quantities of 2 or more, as in “2 seconds” and “55 seconds.”

The conventional way to write “5,280” is, of course, to put a comma after the first digit as shown here. This follows the standard system of writing numbers in the thousands or multiples of thousands, where a comma is placed after the first digit up to a maximum of three digits, then by a comma after every three digits thereafter, as in “1,532,630” and “999,382,567,000.” As we know, however, those commas need to be dropped for calculation purposes using digital computers; this is because digital computers can’t do their computation routines with those commas present. Also, some scientific publications have adopted a style that dispenses with commas in numbers altogether. Both styles—the one using commas and the the other dispensing with the commas—are acceptable.
« Last Edit: September 23, 2010, 11:50:04 PM by Joe Carillo »

jeanne

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Re: plural or singular?
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2010, 04:30:32 PM »
Hi!

Thank you so much for enlightening. This has been very helpful!

Jeanne