Timeline for "Years of experience that keeps us safe." vs "Years of experience that keep us safe."
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 12, 2012 at 0:27 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | People say “Ten years is gonna trump two years” or “Three weeks is long enough to wait.” Just because those subjects are formally plural doesn’t mean they can’t be construed to be singular concepts. | |
| May 11, 2012 at 23:33 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Itai Ferber: Well you can't have it both ways. Either you find both acceptable or you don't. I think what you mean is your own "instinctive inner grammarian" agrees with me and the Mythbusters writer that singular sounds "better", but you can't justify it on logical/pedantic grounds. Language is sometimes just like that. | |
| May 11, 2012 at 23:32 | comment | added | Itai Ferber | On the other hand, I realized that 'experience' is always singular, so it seems like there's no real right answer... | |
| May 11, 2012 at 23:31 | vote | accept | Itai Ferber | ||
| May 11, 2012 at 23:26 | comment | added | Itai Ferber | I agree with you that both are defensible, but I think that plenty of and a great deal of aren't great substitutes for years of, since years are units, and not just modifiers. 'Plenty of experience' is certainly followed by 'keeps', but it's harder (in my mind) to justify the same statement with 'years'. | |
| May 11, 2012 at 23:22 | history | answered | FumbleFingers | CC BY-SA 3.0 |