John wrote:
> Andrew Chaney wrote:
>
>
> > Indeed, if memory serves, pre-civil war (1860-ish) the US was much more
> > a loose conglomerate of states rather than the unified entity it is
today.
>
> Not all that loose. But it did, interestingly, take plural agreement,
> and phrases like "The United States, or any of them" would seem very
> strange today.
Well, in Italian *they* still take the plural:
gli Stati Uniti sono una repubblica
ART States United.PL are a republic.
And I think French and Spanish do the same:
Luca