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I saw a tarp with this text: (Name of University) Academic Community Welcome to the First Youth Congress~~~~ June 15 - 17, 2013 (Name of University) Social Hall Theme: "~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~" I did not mention the name of the university for the obvious reason.. My concern is the word welcome. I think it should be welcomes because the community is taken as one but when I pointed that out they said welcome is correct.. I'm confused..

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  • Not as a rule. Community could also imply the members of the community individually and severally. This issue has already been raised and answered on this pages earlier. See previous posts.
    – Kris
    Mar 14, 2014 at 11:29
  • Thank you.. May I ask a follow up question Kris?
    – nice
    Mar 14, 2014 at 11:32
  • If it's closely related.
    – Kris
    Mar 14, 2014 at 11:35
  • What I meant to ask was this: The University Academic Community welcome or welcomes you to the First Youth Congress..
    – nice
    Mar 14, 2014 at 11:39
  • Both are correct. Please see my first comment.
    – Kris
    Mar 14, 2014 at 11:41

2 Answers 2

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If it's intended as a verb, you have to ask: Academic Community Welcome whom? It doesn't say who or what is being welcomed.

If it's being used as an imperative, "Welcome!", then it imples that it's the Academic Community that is being welcomed. "Academic Community - Welcome!"

The third possibility is that "welcome" is not being used as a verb, but as part of a compound noun "Academic Community Welcome" (like "Annual General Meeting").

That assumes that you have reproduced the line very exactly, with all punctuation marks as they were in the original. If it is correctly reproduced, then I'd call it a clumsily-written bit of text, because none of the above solutions work very well.

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I believe that this is a signage issue rather than a grammar issue.

If it were "The University Academic Community Welcome You to the First Youth Congress" I would say that you have a case that it is wrong, because it (arguably) should be "welcomes you to the First Youth Congress".

However if the phrase is:

"Welcome to the First Youth Congress"

that is correct. I believe this may be a case of this message, with the University Academic Community placed above/before to show ownership.

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  • This is what I meant exactly.."The University Academic Community Welcome You to the First Youth Congress"... that's means I was right?
    – nice
    Mar 14, 2014 at 11:35
  • "X welcomes you" is correct as a declarative statement, but "Welcome to Y" is also a correct imperative statement. Consider "Welcome to Jurassic Park". Mar 14, 2014 at 11:40

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