3/12/03 Bill McIntyre : >Well, as long as we colonials are digressing about the Brits use of their >language, the thing that always jumps out at me is their use of "are" >when we would use "is." We watch BBC News every evening, and it always >jars my ear when they say something like "Parliament ARE considering a >bill" or "Lancaster ARE leading the league in scoring." Of course we >would say "Congress IS considering a bill" or "New York IS leading the >league."
This particular problem is not specific to English, and french grammarians reject both uses as invalid, since neither the Parliament or the city of Lancaster is (or are) doing anything: the ones acting are the human MEMBERS of parliament and the members of the city council. Which is probably why brits use plural. So the US and UK uses are both wrong here, with the UK showing some acknowledgement of the improper nature of the phrase. The french speakers make the US mistake, which is somewhat logical: if you make a mistake you're usually not aware of it, whereas if you're smart enough to know you shouldn't says that (which is what the brit form shows), then, well, you shouldn't say it. ---- VRic ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
