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The Universal Singular: The Penguin Guide To Plain English

The document discusses the use of singular and plural verbs in English. It provides two examples: 1) The sentence "To the west along the valley is Long Meg and her daughters, memorial to an even more ancient presence" is grammatically correct because "Long Meg and her daughters" is the official name being referred to, not the individual people. 2) When referring to an entire species or class of objects, a singular verb can be used with a plural noun, as in "The fox is a pest" or "The mini-skirt is back in fashion." Care must be taken not to shift between singular and plural verbs when moving between general and specific references.

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51 views

The Universal Singular: The Penguin Guide To Plain English

The document discusses the use of singular and plural verbs in English. It provides two examples: 1) The sentence "To the west along the valley is Long Meg and her daughters, memorial to an even more ancient presence" is grammatically correct because "Long Meg and her daughters" is the official name being referred to, not the individual people. 2) When referring to an entire species or class of objects, a singular verb can be used with a plural noun, as in "The fox is a pest" or "The mini-skirt is back in fashion." Care must be taken not to shift between singular and plural verbs when moving between general and specific references.

Uploaded by

Ilias
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Penguin Guide to Plain English

To the west along the valley is Long Meg and her daughters, memorial to
an even more ancient presence.
W hy is the singular verb is correct here? Because Long Meg and her
daughters is the official nam e o f the group o f stones, and it is the location
o f that group that is being described. In a superficially similar sentence
about real people the plural verb w ould be required (To the west, dow n
the road, live my friend Mrs Bean and her daughters). We extend this
freedom to have singular verbs to certain very familiarly partnered nouns.
Bread and butter is good for you, we say, and even Bacon and eggs is
m y favourite meal. Rhetorical tradition perm its extension o f this freedom
to closely related pairs o f nouns, as in Kiplings Recessional ( The tum ult
and the shouting dies).

The Universal Singular


The universal singular is the construction used in such statements as The
fox is a pest, w here the formally singular noun stands for the species as
a whole. The usage is familiar in daily talk. The m ini-skirt is back in
fashion we say, referring to thousands and thousands o f such garments.
There is a danger that quick movements from use o f the universal singular
to use o f the norm al plural will upset the grammar.
One of the good things about a television series is the interest they generate.
Obviously this shift from a television series to the words they generate
will not do. One m ust stick w ith the universal singular: One o f the good
things about a television series is the interest it can generate. It may be
that this particular sentence goes astray because there is no recognizable
plural form o f series, but the error is found w here that problem does
not arise.
The sleeve section is also made from EXEAT and they are wool-mix lined
for extra warmth.
It is easy to slip thus from the universal singular section to they w hen
the garments in general are being held in m ind. The safest correction
here w ould be to stick to the plural: The sleeve sections are also made
from EXEAT and they are w ool-m ix lined for extra w arm th. Perhaps the
slippage in the following section is less excusable.

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