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General Chat / Grammar question: Why do people use 'are' instead of 'is'?
« on: July 30, 2003, 10:55:58 AM »
I hope the title explained enough to get across what I'm talking about, but in case it didn't, I'd like to know, why do so many people use 'are' instead of 'is' when addressing a company (example: Nintendo, Sony, Konami, Capcom) and other singular groups of people? I don't mean to be nitpicky or critical. This seems like a really good question that might spark some grammar debate. This is not aimed to start an argument or a fight between groups of people who swear up and down they know sentence structure and what-not. This is really the result of one person slowly becoming annoyed at a trend that seemed to start off small about a year and a half ago that has now infected roughly 70% of all forum users.
To be honest, I don't know why people have given in and changed their own usage of 'is' and 'are' to something incorrect without even looking in to it. Just the sentence, "Oh, well Capcom are working on five exclusive games for the Nintendo Gamecube, " doesn't even come out of your mouth naturally. It reeks of wrongness to anybody that has had Freshman level English in high school. I mean, Capcom itself is ONE company. It stands as one software developer. They are acting as one under a common cause and do not pretend to be several independent individuals working together for separate interests or even common interests. Just think about it.
It's like the difference between saying:
The United States are going to war on terrorism.
and,
The United States is going to war on terrorism.
Which do you think is correct? I know which one Microsoft Word says is correct, and I know the one I would use would be viewed as correct on a formal paper. Now, all I want to know is what's up with the usage of 'are' people? Just curious to hear your reasoning and don't mind if you keep doing it.
To be honest, I don't know why people have given in and changed their own usage of 'is' and 'are' to something incorrect without even looking in to it. Just the sentence, "Oh, well Capcom are working on five exclusive games for the Nintendo Gamecube, " doesn't even come out of your mouth naturally. It reeks of wrongness to anybody that has had Freshman level English in high school. I mean, Capcom itself is ONE company. It stands as one software developer. They are acting as one under a common cause and do not pretend to be several independent individuals working together for separate interests or even common interests. Just think about it.
It's like the difference between saying:
The United States are going to war on terrorism.
and,
The United States is going to war on terrorism.
Which do you think is correct? I know which one Microsoft Word says is correct, and I know the one I would use would be viewed as correct on a formal paper. Now, all I want to know is what's up with the usage of 'are' people? Just curious to hear your reasoning and don't mind if you keep doing it.
