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Where are the plurals?

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Latest post Fri, Jun 23 2006 2:14 AM by Clive. 1 replies.
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Believer  +  239178 Fri, 23 Jun 06 01:29 AM

Hi,

I sometimes have trouble distinguishing whether this is a situation requiring a plural noun or not.

He gives the children a chance to 'show off' their own town (how about towns???), and be the experts (how about experts???) on familiar territory. 

When I see this kind of sentence, my attention seems to be on the word "children" and have a hard time thinking it otherwise. I believe that the use of the term "their own town" would be appropriate if they all have the same town and it seems that being the case here is unlikely. How about using these variations? 

show off his or her town ?

show off their own individual town?
Believer
Joined on Mon, Jan 2 2006
Contributing Member 1,969
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Clive  +  239181 Fri, 23 Jun 06 02:14 AM

Hi,

He gives the children a chance to 'show off' their own town (how about towns???), and be the experts (how about experts???) on familiar territory. 

I'd say He gives the children a chance to 'show off' their own towns and be the experts on familiar territory. I'd understand from this that more than one town is involved. If you say 'town', I'd tend to think they all lived in the same town.

Best wishes, Clive
Clive
Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004
Canada
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El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo
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