Re: USAGE: THEORY/USAGE: irregular English plurals (was: RE:

> Nik:
> > I can't speak for John, but for me "the team are" is as ungrammatical as
> > "the man are"
> And Tom Wier & John Cowan, like good North Americans, concur.
> Are any of the following okay?
> 1a. My family were arguing with each other.
> 1b. My family was arguing with each other.
>
> 2a. My family were behaving themselves.
> 2b. My family was behaving themselves.
> 2c. My family was behaving itself.
Personally, I would use none of those.
I'd strike out "were arguing," "were behaving," and "was behaving itself"
right off. I don't know if "My family was arguing with eachother" is
incorrect, but it doesn't sound right to me. I'd rather say something like
"Everyone in my family was arguing," "my family was arguing," "the whole
family was arguing," "everyone in the family was behaving themself," etc.

-Kendra
http://www.refrigeratedcake.com
http://www.refrigeratedcake.com/other/theatre -- Vade Mecum (comic)
----- Original Message -----
From: "And Rosta" <a-rosta@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: THEORY/USAGE: irregular English plurals (was: RE:


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