In Plurals^x, Football^x

To Cool Breeze about Champions League. Actually I would not have known whether to put an apostrophe or not in this case (I'm not a football enthusiast). In general you're right, that plural nouns are not often used adjectivally. the exception is when a noun is normally used in the plural. As we...

J Lewis wrote:Yes, Cool Breeze, I agree. Your two possibilites are right and I wouldn't use the plural without an apostrophe. I note that in AmE you say "afterward". I didn't know that; in BrE we say "afterwards". And also "towards".Thank you, J Lewis. I am familiar with both toward and towards...

Hi, I've gone through the first paragraph for you and highlighted problems in the rest. Your main difficulty seems to be the use of singular/plural, verb tenses and knowing when you need a determiner. There are other errors as well though. Once again, NO CAPITAL LETTER AFTER COMMAS! Nicely...

Hi guys, I agree that the verb should be singular when you are thinking of England as a country, eg England has got a great football team. However, when you are thinking of England as 'the team', then the plural is common, eg England have no excuses if they fail this time. Best wishes, Clive

Hvpl wrote:I understand that certain nouns (collective nouns?) that do not have a plural word. E.g. aircraft, rain and perspiration. However, I come across such usage, specially in Asia. "Many aircraftS are taking off and landing at this airport." or "Beads of perspirationS fell from his...

Hello Anon In BrE, it would be more usual to say: 1. Manchester United are running out onto the pitch. 2. Manchester United is one of the great English football clubs. In #1, Man. Utd is a group of people: hence the plural verb. (If you say "is running", it conjures up the image of a...

A line is an expression, speech or monologue that is designed to unfairly (through manipulation of feelings or outright mendacity, for instance) influence the listener toward some goal concocted by the speaker-- such as sex, power, respect, etc. Many young men have lines which they hope...

You can use a fraction as a subject as long as you write it like "two thirds of X" not like "2/3 of X". As for the verb's form, use a verb in singular form when the noun X is singular, and use a verb in plural form when the noun X is plural. "Two-fifths of the football players were lost in...

Is it true that fractional expressions are not usually the subject of the sentence (i.e. football players, cane field, students, student body) and it is the subject (whether its plural or not) that actually determines whether the verb is plural or single....?? Eg. Two-fifths of the football...

Not at all, Rolebra – there are plenty of strong disagreements on this site! They keep things ticking over. Although BrE speakers tend towards plural verbs with collective nouns (e.g. football teams, companies), a hefty minority will always choose the singular. But even amongst those, 'number +...