Calling all grammarians
So is it
the United States are
or
The United States is
and if the latter, when did it change?
the United States are
or
The United States is
and if the latter, when did it change?
Monday, September 19, 2005
About Me
- Name: Prom
- Location: NJ wasteland, United States
I'm in the midst of some sort of transformation. This is an exploration of that. It might make no sense to anyone reading it. Maybe no one will read it but if you do, feel free to comment, ask questions. I might even answer them.
Previous Posts
- For Can you keep a secret
- For Art2
- Innana's interview
- New Car
- Holding Steady
- Twins from a different mother
- Happy
- Openess
- Emotional lability
- No details
4 Comments:
Technically it should be "are" but since everyone says "is" it feels wrong, somehow. It's like when the Brits say "The audience are laughing" and that sounds strange to us because we treat "audience" as one individual audience. In other grammar news, I found out that the "an" historical thing is no longer necessary. People have butchered it so much that you can just say "a" now and still be correct. Nice.
According to Shelby Foote, the Civil War turned the United States from a plural noun: "the United States are" to a collective singular noun: "the United States is." How this happened I don't know. I just remember Mr. Foote and his gravelly voice saying it at one point in the Burns' brothers' documentary, probably right before "Atokan Farewell" started up on the sound track. You want actual research and documentation? Check with Innana or Kira, linguistic goddesses both.
Clgsyfnm? What's that?
Actually, United States is a collective noun. Some collective nouns are singular or plural, depending on their use (ethics is a course I study in college; her ethics are under scrutiny). When the members of a group are considered individuals, the collective nouns take plurals (the committee are fighting). When they act together, they take singular verbs (the committee has awarded the prize).
The United States is a country. It's singular. If you mean to speak of the states separately (some of the United States are thinking of leaving), then it's plural, but that's rare.
(Source: bartleby.com)
The US is a country, therefore United States is singular. However, the united states are plural. Nothing has changed. There is nothing new under the sun.
Is your name really Jennie?
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