Timeline for Is the phrase “every X and every Y” singular or plural?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
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| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
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| Jan 12, 2018 at 4:16 | history | bounty ended | herisson | ||
| Jan 10, 2018 at 16:19 | comment | added | Lawrence | @sumelic Thanks for your feedback. I've added the second to my answer. | |
| Jan 10, 2018 at 16:18 | history | edited | Lawrence | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added a published example
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| Jan 10, 2018 at 16:05 | comment | added | herisson | That first linked example definitely doesn't seem like it could use "is"; however, the document it is taken from doesn't seem to be written by a very skilled writer. I can imagine some people saying that a sentence like that would have to be reformulated. The last one seems good! | |
| Jan 10, 2018 at 16:02 | comment | added | Lawrence | @sumelic Another candidate: "how much every husband and every wife are what their help-mates make them". It's not each husband and (separately) each wife; it's the 'marital unit' that's in view. | |
| Jan 10, 2018 at 16:00 | comment | added | Lawrence | @sumelic There's also an ELL Q&A along these lines, though no published reference is offered. | |
| Jan 10, 2018 at 15:57 | comment | added | Lawrence | @sumelic What do you think of this? "Every husband and every wife are living in coexistence, not life; tolerating each other as much as possible." | |
| Jan 8, 2018 at 1:16 | comment | added | Lawrence | @sumelic Now that's a tall order :) . I was hesitant in posting the last bit and now think it might be an archaic or perhaps logically-inaccurate (but grammatically acceptable, at least historically) way of expressing "every X and its Y". I'm having a hard time finding a relevant source through the many instances where 'every X and every Y' is misused with plural agreement. (Oh, and ... you're welcome :) .) | |
| Jan 7, 2018 at 18:15 | comment | added | herisson | Thanks for posting this! The Grammar Bytes quotation certainly seems relevant, although it doesn't give an example of the exact type "every x and every y" with multiple "every"s. The last paragraph of your answer seems very interesting, and to me personally the argument seems plausible, but I would be interested in seeing some kind of external support for the idea that sentences like "every x coordinate and every y coordinate match" are validly formed. Can you quote any pre-existing examples from books/articles? | |
| Jan 7, 2018 at 15:40 | history | answered | Lawrence | CC BY-SA 3.0 |