Jose Carillo's English Forum

English Grammar and Usage Problems => Use and Misuse => Topic started by: Miss Mae on October 09, 2011, 03:09:56 PM

Title: Was and were
Post by: Miss Mae on October 09, 2011, 03:09:56 PM

Am I just wrong, Sir? This paragraph is from a news story of a foreign publication.

It was a game the UAE were expected to win to qualify second, behind Iran, to whom they lost 4-1, in Group B. "Bahrain are a strong team from what I have seen of them but I am very hopeful we have the stuff to win this game," said Ajenoui, the Moroccan-born Portuguese who took charge of the defending champions a month ago.

Title: Re: Was and were
Post by: Joe Carillo on October 10, 2011, 10:23:27 AM

No, you are not wrong; it’s only that like most Filipinos, you are accustomed to reading American English, where a noun denoting a group, team, company, or organization is considered singular in form. The paragraph you quoted is evidently from a British publication or from a publication in a country that uses British English. As a rule in British English, a group noun is considered plural in form. This explains why that sports story used the plural past-tense form “were” for the group noun “UAE,” which, of course, is a reference to the team of the United Arab Emirates. So with the use of the plural present-tense form “are” for the Bahrain team.

So, when reading something published in countries that use British English, we must mentally recalibrate our subject-verb agreement prescriptions with respect to group nouns. They must always be reckoned as plural in form.

Title: Re: Was and were
Post by: Miss Mae on October 10, 2011, 02:22:19 PM

Thank you for considering my question even though I forgot to make it clear. Guess I really need to buy a British dictionary soon.

Title: Re: Was and were
Post by: maryam77 on October 12, 2011, 10:39:03 AM

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Title: Re: Was and were
Post by: kanchan on November 07, 2011, 05:12:15 PM

Nice reply................

Title: Re: Was and were
Post by: supercard on December 04, 2011, 05:35:45 PM

i have known this.

Title: Re: Was and were
Post by: TashaHawking on December 09, 2011, 10:40:51 PM

"Was" is used if you subject is singular. "Were" is used if your subject is plural or you have a compound subject (more than one subject...two or more subjects). I was at the mall-I is singular: one person. They were at the mall-They is pural: more than one person. Claire is happy-Claire is singular: one person. Claire and Paige are happy-Claire and Paige is a compound subject: more than one subject...two subjects. There are exceptions, though. For example, if the subject is you. You were there. It's singular, yet you use were instead of was. It's confusing, but you'll get the hang of it!
Test question for you: One of the people (was/were) tired.

Title: Re: Was and were
Post by: darelle on December 14, 2011, 02:47:38 PM

Well I plan to buy a British dictionary soon...

Title: Re: Was and were
Post by: Quite17 on December 15, 2011, 11:24:58 AM

Quote

Test question for you: One of the people (was/were) tired.

One of the people was tired.

I understand by this way:
One person is tired.
This person is in the people group.