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English isn’t English. There’s British English, and American English (and probably Australian English as well). It doesn’t bother me that the only difference between humor and humour depends on whether you’re looking it up in the OED or Webster’s.
It’s illogical for them to call a car’s trunk a “boot”. Where did that insanity come from? It’s a trunk! A boot is footwear, a trunk is a box that stores stuff.
It’s illogical to use a three syllable word that has a one syllable synonym, as in the British lift, that we call an “elevator”. Lifting and elevating are the same thing! Calling a lift an “elevator” is stupid. You may say “but an American named Otis invented them.” No, he didn’t. Elevators date back to ancient Rome and are older than the English language.
But none of that bothers me.
What does bother me is an ignorant Britishism that we Americans have started to copy, speaking and writing as if a company or a team is plural, as in “Microsoft are”. That drives me crazy! Microsoft is ONE company. The British (and now we) say “the team are playing…” NO! It’s ONE team! How many individual football teams (we’re wrong calling American football “football”) are there in Great Britain? The team is and the teams are.
Yes, a team has several players, and a company may have hundreds of employees, but a car has thousands of parts. Why do you say “the car is” rather than “the car are?”
Because that would be stupidly illogical, that’s why. As stupid and illogical as saying “Microsoft are”.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Thursday January 20 2022, @04:19PM (11 children)
We say "the team is playing today," but we don't say "the Calgary Flames is playing today" or "the Patriots is winning the game."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @04:32PM (3 children)
Correct, a company can be both a singular and plural.
I've never written a company letter that didn't use "we" and it's "we are" not "we is".
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday January 20 2022, @09:20PM (2 children)
Rarely is the question asked . . . is our children learning? [youtube.com]
-- US President George W Bush
He almost says "are", but fortunately corrects himself.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @09:40PM (1 child)
I think we is misunderestimating McGrew.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @11:20PM
Don't shoot him.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Friday January 21 2022, @12:51AM (5 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @01:55AM (4 children)
What about Delta Air Lines? The plural can be implicit in a company name too, depending on context. "Microsoft is the new owner of Activision/Blizzard, they are perusing a controlling position in the video game market". In this context, "the company" as "they" means the Board and Executives - it's already implicit in the subject.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 22 2022, @12:46AM (3 children)
Britain is wrong because the British are wrong.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 3, Funny) by dry on Saturday January 22 2022, @05:35AM (2 children)
Yes, but what about the English?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22 2022, @09:06AM (1 child)
They're wronger.
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday January 22 2022, @06:34PM
Not what my English teacher would say.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Saturday January 22 2022, @01:38PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @05:28PM (1 child)
So there is a people who are using their words wrong. Got it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @08:42PM
According to "The Burned-Out Stoner's Guide To English"
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 20 2022, @06:56PM (6 children)
We call a lift an elevator, and we call a tissue a Kleenex. Old trademarks tend to stick
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday January 20 2022, @09:15PM (5 children)
An Escalator could also be called a lift.
Brits say Sellotape [wikipedia.org] where yanks say "scotch tape".
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @09:23PM (1 child)
Weird, the rest of us say 'sticky tape' because it's sticky.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Friday January 21 2022, @03:36PM
Masking tape is also sticky. Duck / Duct tape is also sticky. Frog tape is sticky. Gorilla tape is sticky. Audio recording tape . . . ideally should not be sticky.
Q. Why do all NASA missions always include Duct tape?
A. Because Duct Tape is like the force. It has a dark side, it has a light side, and it binds the universe together.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @10:09PM (1 child)
In "The Stoner's Guide" it's called an upper and a downer. Sellotape is a bad trip.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @01:44AM
No True Scottish Tape ...
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday January 22 2022, @01:55PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @07:48PM (10 children)
My least favorite are all the words being switched to -ate. "The announcer commented" to "The announcer commentated."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday January 20 2022, @09:09PM
You aren't sure which direction you are facing. In Australia you need to get "orientated". In the rest of the world you need to get "oriented".
Along with British, American and Australian English, let's also not forget Canadian English. Where "about" is pronounced like "a boot".
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 3, Funny) by Farmer Tim on Thursday January 20 2022, @11:17PM (1 child)
Came for the news, stayed for the soap opera.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @03:01AM
Ok BIG FARMA!
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday January 20 2022, @11:52PM
Then y'alls really going to hate the far future [youtu.be].
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 22 2022, @12:49AM
Another pet peeve, but no worse than "irregardless".
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday January 22 2022, @01:59PM (4 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 22 2022, @02:46PM (3 children)
The trouble is "commentate" is usually misused over here. And it's a Britishism we Americans have adopted. If you're giving yesterday's news, you're commenting.
com·men·tate
/ˈkämənˌtāt/
Learn to pronounce
verbBritish
verb: commentate; 3rd person present: commentates; past tense: commentated; past participle: commentated; gerund or present participle: commentating
report on an event as it occurs, especially for a news or sports broadcast; provide a commentary.
"they commentate on live Monday matches"
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 23 2022, @02:59AM (2 children)
And one I see everywhere in buth the UK and USA - "one of the only". It's either one of the few or the only. This started in the 90s with the "everyone gets passed because we don't want to hurt their feelings." Bad parents are to blame.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 23 2022, @03:20AM
Well, you're fired.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday January 23 2022, @08:19AM
Delete this post after reading it, as it was intended for your eyes only. But hurry up, you're allowed only 30 seconds to read it.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday January 20 2022, @09:24PM (4 children)
Congratulations mcgrew, you got more responses than my tirade against the reduplicative copula (and "don't got") [soylentnews.org]. I love a good bit of linguistic pedantry.
According to someone on stackexchange [stackexchange.com]:
and:
Sounds plausible.
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @09:45PM
This explanation seems a little on the proverbial elephants proboscis.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday January 22 2022, @02:09PM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22 2022, @02:30PM (1 child)
It's probably not a coincidence that "box" has replaced "trunk" in the American lexicon.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Sunday January 30 2022, @08:30PM
The company is going broke...
The company's board members have decided...
on the silly differences:
swimming trunks have nothing to do with elephants, unless the person wearing them is very well endowed.
the box seat is not like a cricket box
At least hood and bonnet both referred to headwear before the were used for the engine cover on a vehicle.
An ass can kick your arse in the UK and Australia.. an ass will kick your ass in the US (context is everything)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by hendrikboom on Thursday January 20 2022, @11:02PM (2 children)
Don't forget Indian English. There's a huge population of English speakers in India. Indian English has its own peculiarities. One I've noticed is an increased use of the progressive tenses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @05:32AM (1 child)
Sanskrit influence. What bothers me is the disappearance of the perfect tense in American English. Some one "pleaded" guilty? What is wrong with the perfectly cromulent perfect tense, since the "action in the past is completed", They "pled". Crucial distinction in case between a mere past, and a completed past, to distinguish from an on-going past. Not like some one "bleeded" to death, or is "well-breeding". Grammar matters, unless, well, unless you have "Stopped the Steel".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @02:33PM
I've never heard anyone use your example incorrectly, but I do see it in other places, "loaned" is especially common.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 20 2022, @11:51PM
The Highway Act of 1835 mandated that everyone drive on the wrong side of the road. The reasons for the act weren't really understood, until 1865, when Lewis Carroll's Wonderland stories were published. A rational man would expect the error to have been corrected, after mind altering drugs were outlawed in the UK.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @07:18AM
there is wide confusion of whether it's the hormones that caused the different neural pathways to be activated, or whether the neural pathways activated the secretion of the relevant hormones.
there is also the question of "do mcgrew simply need a cookie?"
(Score: 2) by BK on Friday January 21 2022, @03:49PM
Have we investigated how the company or the team identifies? We may need to adjust pronouns as well.
The company may well be plural. You should ask before you criticize. Maybe it is expressing different perception? Or the importance of its subsidiaries? Or maybe transnationalism is a factor?
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Sunday January 23 2022, @05:17PM (3 children)
The potatoes are ready to eat.
The rice is ready to eat.
If it is lots of things (difficult to count), in aggregate, it is singular.
If it is a small (countable) number of things, in aggregate, it is plural.
The horses are galloping.
The herd is galloping.
The IBM employees are working.
IBM (as a singular corporate entity) is making a profit.
Things get confused when the name of the aggregate entity is plural, as in 'The Raiders'. Then the natural sounding form is plural, as in 'the horses are galloping', the Raiders are winning. On the other hand, if you hew to the idea that the name is just a label attached to a singular entity, then the 'team called The Raiders' is winning - or in short 'The Raiders' is winning - which sounds wrong, because you tend to expect a plural form to have a plural verb.
Back to companies: if a company is acting as a single entity, such as in a lawsuit, it can be singular, and the name is a label attached to a singular entity. If some company employees are engaged in an endeavour, then you are actually referring to a (plural) group of employees, so it is natural to use the plural form.
Just be glad you don't speak Russian, where different plurals are used depending on how many are in the group you are referring to [russianlessons.net] (not to mention the cases). Ask a Russian which form they use for "the 1920s" - is it singular, or plural, and if plural, which plural form. It can generate heated debate amongst Russians.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday January 23 2022, @09:24PM (2 children)
The potatoes are ready to eat.
The rice is ready to eat.
What if you have ten tons of potatoes? It's then "The potatoes is" or "the potato is"? I don't see quantity having anything to do with it at all. How many grains of rice are in a spoonful? If you have three grains of rice, is that three rices? The plural of rice is always rice, the plural of potato is always potatoes (or spuds).
What about datum and data? Everybody, even on TV, says "the data is" when data is the plural of datum. That one should be "the data are".
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Sunday January 23 2022, @10:43PM
Hmm. Good point.
There's probably a rule hiding in there somewhere. If you were cooking in industrial quantities you would say: "Are the potatoes ready?", but you would say "Is the beef ready?", or "Is the cabbage ready?". If the potatoes were mashed, it is quite possible, if not likely that you would ask "Is the potato ready?", the difference being that the potatoes have been transformed from discrete items to a continuous (uncountable) quantity of mash. I don't know enough about the technical structure of language or the descriptive vocabulary to say what is going on here. I'm sure someone who studies language for a living could sort it out.
As for datum/data: there are still a few holdouts who say the data are, but they are rare.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday January 30 2022, @08:48PM
rice is both a name and a collective noun for grains of rice
like corn and popcorn
you don't butter the corns (what you do with your bunions is your business)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex