Be Careful with Your Plurals

If you have more than one, you have a plural, even if you have more than one of the same thing. Middle panel:

You can change this by changing the subject to “each.” So “…would you want to find each of them an good home?” Now “them” is the object of the the preposition and “each” is a nice singular to go with “a good home.

So be careful!

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What’s wrong with this sentence?

The isotopic signature of material from the inner and outer solar system differ significantly. 

https://newatlas.com/earth-water-moon-collision/59782/

“Differ” is plural, right? And the phrase “inner and outer” describes two things, right? So what’s wrong?

“Inner and outer” isn’t the subject of “differ”! “Signature” is, and “signature” is singular.

Since we’re talking about two things, though, the subject should be plural! (“Inner and outer” are objects of the preposition “of.”)

The picture isn’t very useful, but it’s in the article…

Remember: the subject and the verb must both be singular or both plural. That’s agreement.

In English (okay, and many other languages) we have this concept called agreement. Agreement means that singulars go with singulars and plurals go with plurals. I remember this specific example being covered back in sixth grade. He gets it wrong. Can you spot it?

Well, panel 2. “type” is singular, but “those” is plural. It should be “that type of publication.” Or “those types of publications.”

I don’t happen to know the technical term for it, but when you refer to something in, say, the third person, don’t switch to using, say, the first person when you refer to it.

Perhaps best explained with an example:

Here’s the sentence:

China has changed that market dramatically, and their decision has forced the rest of the world to become more self-reliant and responsible in our waste management.

• China—third person; their—third person. They refer to the same entity, so okay.
• rest of the world—third person; our—first person!
• They refer to the same entity, so not good

The sentence could have used “us” instead of “rest of the world” and it would have been okay. The sentence could also have used “their” instead of “our” and that would have been okay, too, but I prefer using first person because the sentence already used the third person for China, so using the first person when you refer to someone else is a little smoother.

So what do you call it? Person agreement? Personal coordination? How about clear instead of confusing?

Agreement, remember, is singular words connecting to singular words, and plural words connecting to plurals. We say “Tom jumps,” not “Tom jump,” “John and Paul run” not “John and Paul runs.” We say “the party is,” not “the party are” and so on. With long complex sentences, it can get tricky.

Take a look at this sentence:

Financial institutions, merchants, and individuals are all concerned with their reputations, which prevents theft and fraud. 

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/02/blockchain_and_.html

Look at all those plurals! institutions, merchants, individuals, reputations. And we have a subordinate clause, (“which prevents theft and fraud”) which refers to something, but its verb is singular! What does the clause refer to? Well, what does the preventing? It’s their concern. All those plurals have a concern, singular. That subordinate clause is an adverb clause, not an adjective clause.

How, you ask, can a plural verb represent a singular noun? Well, it can. I said these long sentences can be tricky. You just have to think.