Timeline for In special cases, can you use "one such family are" vs. "one such family is"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 5, 2011 at 9:09 | comment | added | Marcin | One finds the same variance in references to partnerships and corporate bodies. | |
| May 3, 2011 at 22:54 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Michael: Well I did say family is is more common, but you're right. Although 'many' isn't the same as 'all'. And almost certainly some of that is down to people being concious of grammatical 'rules' they were taught at school. In speech people are much more likely to pluralise, especially if they're thinking of many family members at the time, rather than the cohesiveness of the group as a single entity. | |
| May 3, 2011 at 22:38 | comment | added | Michael | Thanks or your the quick help. However, I think many of those ngrams hits are sentences like: "Several members of the family are aquatic to varying degrees." | |
| May 3, 2011 at 22:34 | history | answered | FumbleFingers | CC BY-SA 3.0 |