a girl/girls

0With "they" it would sound very odd to use anything other than a plural.0-

0So, the noun and the object must match in contexts that use the word 01i00like02i00.02br
02br
00For example,02br
02br
00He/She worked like a dog.02br
02br
00They/We worked like dogs.0-

0 It certainly sounds more natural to my ear that way. 0-

Hi,

I think these are from the original poster's posts:

1. They fought like a dog. -- Not natural to you.

2. They work like a dog -- Not natural to you.

How are they different from this.

3. They should bring a pencil in case the teacher decides to give a test.

On a second look, the first and second sentences do look better, even to me,

If the subject is singular/plural, the object that describes the subject must also be in singular/plural.

For example,

They are men! => not man

She is a girl =>not girls

Anonymous3. They should bring a pencil in case the teacher decides to give a test.

This type of plural/singular agreement has been debated quite a bit on this forum, and there are no absolute answers. Logic tells you that "they" will not be sharing one pencil among them, so each person will bring his or her own pencil.

A related pr

LOL, GG, and that seems simple to you?

Grammar GeekAnyway, you need to let logic (is there logic in English?), the requirement to avoid ambiguity (is English not ambiguous?), the desire to avoid sounding silly (how do I know what sounds silly?), and lastly, what genu

Kooyeen, I almost bought your theory until you got stuck. I was so excited. But now I'm back to my original way which is to memoriz

I didn't say it was simple. I said there are no absolutes. Any time you have to balance a lot of factors, it will not be simple.

All the students brought a pencil can create an image of a giant pencil they tote around like a battering ram, just like "their hand" can sound like a giant hand. However "a pencil" sounds more like a pencil for each than "their hand" which

Hi GG,
thanks but...

Grammar Geek...You can avoid any possibility of ambiguity with...
...I don't have a simple answer. You can rewrite...

...that's a problem I always see in this forum. Everybody only seems to consider written English, and usually only formal written En