Anonymous  +  178970 Wed, 04 Jan 06 03:47 PM In business correspondence I often find sentences like this one: "There is a manufacturer in Kenya called XY who manufactures biscuits, however, they do not have lemon biscuits in their range.". In such sentences there is a mix-up of singular and plural: "a" (= 1) manufacturer who does this and that turns into a "they". I understand that a manufacturing company cannot be called "he", "she" or "it", but is there any general grammar rule how to deal with this problem? Burkhard Anonymous Grammar, Plurals

	Pgeorgieff  +  179134 Thu, 05 Jan 06 12:29 AM I think the person who has wrote this letter, has meant the company's personnel. He's used "they", because from his point of view, there are two business situation : we - our company (me and others or whole personnel), and they - others companies, or particular one company's stuff. Pgeorgieff Joined on Sat, Dec 31 2005 Bulgaria New Member 18 Plurals

	Danyoo  +  179277 Thu, 05 Jan 06 11:00 AM You are talking about the collective noun usage.  There is a difference between AmE and BrE. From http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/020.html Some nouns, like committee, clergy, enemy, group, family, and team, refer to a group but are singular in form. These nouns are called collective nouns. In American usage, a collective noun takes a singular verb when it refers to the collection considered as a whole, as in The family was united on this question or The enemy is suing for peace. It takes a plural verb when it refers to the members of the group considered as individuals, as in My family are always fighting among themselves or The enemy were showing up in groups of three or four to turn in their weapons. In British usage, collective nouns are more often treated as plurals: The government have not announced a new policy. The team are playing in the test matches next week. Danyoo Joined on Fri, Nov 11 2005 Chicago, USA Regular Member 558 To err is human, to forgive divine. 잘못을 저지르는 것은 인간이지만 용서할수있는 것은 하늘과 같은것. Verbs, Singular Verbs, Plurals, Difference Between, Nouns