Search results for 'tag:Singular nouns tag:Dates' matching tags 'Singular nouns' and 'Dates'

Re: Is this sentence correct

Mr Wordy — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:43:19 GMT

wholegrain
When we use a singular noun to refer to many instances of the thing we are referring to (or to use for the entire class of such things), it may be uncountable and countable still depending on the definition we use of the word in question?

I'm not sure if you're asking whether the same noun that refers to many instances or a general class can be either countable or uncountable, or whether you're talking about different nouns. In the latter case yes. For example, "traffic" is uncountable; "flock" (of birds) is countable. In the former case, potentially also yes, but examples are harder to think of. "Population" is the best candidate I can come up with right now.

wholegrain
For instance man would be uncountable as it may refer to mankind, therefore it doesn't take any article.

That's correct. If "man" (often "Man") means "mankind" then it is uncountable and does not take an article.

wholegrain
However, in the case of church or state, they always take an article, because of their definition: their definitions making them countable and not uncountable?

"church" meaning the building is countable and takes an article ("I live opposite a church"). "church" can be uncountable, with no article, in the sense I illustrated before.

"state" is normally countable.

"the state" and "the church" (sometimes capitalised as "the State" or "the Church") can also be used in the abstract sense of "the institution". For example:

They can do this because the State decrees it so.

This is a grey area to me in terms as far as terminology is concerned. I'm not sure if "State" here would be classed as a countable noun, or whether it falls outside the countable/uncountable noun classification system.

Re: questions!!!

Cool Breeze — Wed, 02 May 2007 08:25:18 GMT

Grammar Geek wrote:

Let's see what other people think. Which of the following are acceptable? Which are outright wrong?

Situation one:
Of all the nice young ladies we just met, which would be good candidates to join our Tea and Cupcake Society? Correct, as an interrogative pronoun, which is used to limit the choice.
Of all the nice young ladies we just met, who would be good candidates to join our Tea and Cupcake Society? Correct as well.
Of all the nice young ladies we just met, whom did you consider good candidates to join our Tea and Cupcake Society? Acceptable, but many would reject it because candidates is a plural and there is a grammatical school that thinks a singular noun should be used after who/whom in situations like this.

Situation two:
They were all nice young ladies, at least, all the ones that I talked to. OK
They were all nice young ladies, at least, all the ones whom I talked to. OK
They were all nice young ladies, at least, all the ones which I talked to. Definitely wrong. (Would have been OK 400 years ago.)
They were all nice young ladies, at least, all the ones who I talked to. OK

Cheers
CB

Re: Use of "an" before a plural, modified noun

Clive — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:01:25 GMT

Hi,

Why do we say "He will pay her for an extra two hours of work" when "two hours" is obviously plural?" "I'll take an extra dozen." "It will accommodate an additional three persons."

In this kind of construction, we are thinking of 'two hours of work' as a single 'amount of work', and three persons' as 'a single group of people'. That's why we say 'an extra two hours of work' rather than 'two extra hours of work'.

The word 'dozen' is a singular noun. We can count dozens.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Difference between aggregate and collective nouns

Goodman — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:24:13 GMT

Obviously, depending on where we learned English, it has some bearing on our understanding toward some of the most common debated questions. To validate my own understanding, I did some searching and came to a conclusion, In the US, some experts agree that either singular or plural is acceptable, but must be consistently used in the context. However, the majority considers âPoliceâ as plural. In contrast, it seems that in Europe âpoliceâ is used as a singular noun. I learned something todayâ¦..

House Style Guide

The singular form packs a greater punch, but both are correct. ... Form plural possessives by adding an apostrophe to plural nouns ending in "s" (appellees' ...
courts.state.ar.us/courts/rd_style6.html - 58k - Cached - Similar pages

Unit 5. Singular, plural, and collective nouns

Collective nouns can be used with singular or plural verbs. ... WARNING: "Police" is a plural noun, but does not end in "-s". The police were informed ...

The Grammar Doctor's Tip Archive Page 7

My dictionary doesn't indicate whether it considers it singular or plural, but I still treat it as singular. Note that "police" is always plural, as is ...
www.grammardoctor.com/archive10.htm - 39k - Cached - Similar pages

Online Style Guide - P - Online Specials - Times Online
Whether singular or plural, always maintain consistency within a story ... Police Complaints Authority was replaced (April 2004) by the Independent Police ...
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2941-576,00.html - Similar pages

[PDF] TSHIVENDA TSHIVENDA
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
singular and plural, under one number, while others prefer the. international numbering. ... In less than ten years, the South African Police Service has ...

Re: Grammer Check

anon1 — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 07:05:13 GMT

Data,

It's an interesting question. I saw two usage notes.

From GuruNet.com...

Let's go through them.

USAGE NOTE The word data is the plural of Latin datum, âsomething given,â but it is not always treated as a plural noun in English. The plural usage is still common, as this headline from the New York Times attests: âData Are Elusive on the Homeless.â Sometimes scientists think of data as plural, as in These data do not support the conclusions. But more often scientists and researchers think of data as a singular mass entity like information, and most people now follow this in general usage. Sixty percent of the Usage Panel accepts the use of data with a singular verb and pronoun in the sentence Once the data is in, we can begin to analyze it. A still larger number, 77 percent, accepts the sentence We have very little data on the efficacy of such programs, where the quantifier very little, which is not used with similar plural nouns such as facts and results, implies that data here is indeed singular.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The American HeritageÂ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright Â© 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

From the above note, it appears that singular is fine.

From Merriam-Webster Online dictionary...

usage Data leads a life of its own quite independent of datum, of which it was originally the plural. It occurs in two constructions: as a plural noun (like earnings), taking a plural verb and plural modifiers (as these, many, a few) but not cardinal numbers, and serving as a referent for plural pronouns (as they, them); and as an abstract mass noun (like information), taking a singular verb and singular modifiers (as this, much, little), and being referred to by a singular pronoun (it). Both constructions are standard. The plural construction is more common in print, evidently because the house style of several publishers mandates it.

I can't figure out what M-W is saying. Can you? I think you can choose your own rule with M-W and point to the appropriate sentences in M-W's explanation for support.

Me, I often use data as a singular noun.

Hope this helps.

MountainHiker