Timeline for plural noun with plural noun
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 11, 2016 at 6:07 | comment | added | ba_ul | That was perhaps not a good example. How about this one: The government will support those small business owners whose [ business / businesses ] suffered during the recession. Assume each owner has one business. (I did some digging after I posted the question, and it looks like there's no clear agreement on this topic. Still, I'm curious to know which one sounds more natural to a native speaker's ear.) | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 23:46 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @ba_ul (1) I can't be confident that there is an inviolable rule, but I'd use 'People with two cars / People with one car' to achieve more precision than 'People with cars' etc. (2) I don't find either "people whose startups have matured" or "people whose startup has matured" a familiar phrase, and neither does Google. I'd say the former sounds less unnatural (though I'm not claiming either to be unacceptable). But, if you need to disambiguate, you may have to use the latter. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 23:34 | comment | added | ba_ul | @EdwinAshworth Good explanation. Is the second construction idiomatic and preferable in most cases? That is, if I'm in doubt, should I follow the second one? "They advise founders whose [ startup has / startups have ] matured." Which one is better? | |
| Feb 9, 2016 at 19:26 | history | edited | Aurast | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 9, 2016 at 13:21 | comment | added | Aurast | @Edwin Good point, thanks for the comment, I added a note for readers to check your comment. | |
| Feb 9, 2016 at 13:19 | history | edited | Aurast | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 9, 2016 at 0:23 | comment | added | Roaring Fish | Surely, if people cannot jointly have IQ scores, then the construction in B is the only one that does make sense - each person has a single, individual, IQ score. Construction A, in contrast, suggests that each individual has several IQs. This may hold if you follow the fashion of multiple intelligences, but not for this question. | |
| Feb 8, 2016 at 23:17 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | Usage trumps what might be said to be logic. 'The number of people bearing a grudge against the General was growing.' can be found as an internet example where it is hardly a communal grudge (though it might be for just one reason). Idioms can disobey logical rules of agreement. And 'people with a high IQ' occurs reasonably frequently on the internet; while not really being an idiom, it (and similar constructions, such as 'men with a full head of hair' and 'men with a history of mental illness') are idiomatic. | |
| Feb 8, 2016 at 18:54 | comment | added | Peter Shor | The employes all have a computer. | |
| Feb 8, 2016 at 17:45 | comment | added | Rob_Ster | I agree that both are grammatically correct, but feel that the OP's second example could make sense if the indefinite article suggests a range of IQ scores. "Persons with a high IQ" do not all have the same score, but may all share membership in an upper echelon. | |
| Feb 8, 2016 at 17:40 | history | answered | Aurast | CC BY-SA 3.0 |