A singular/plural issue

Question

Please help on this simple (!) issue. Which of these is correct? A) The Church was at the centre of everyone's lives. B) The Church was at the centre of everyone's life.

(B) feels correct using everone as singular but (A) also sounds good! The meaning is that the Church was dominating the life of each individual, not the collective village life
Thank you
Adrian

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Please help on this simple (!) issue. Which of these is correct? A) The Church was at the centre of everyone's lives. B) The Church was at the centre of everyone's life.[/nq]
Both are grammatically correct: so the problem
is which syntax we prefer probably B to avoid
implying that one person has two or more lives.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Please help on this simple (!) issue. Which of these ... B) The Church was at the centre of everyone's life.[/nq]
[nq:1]Both are grammatically correct: so the problem is which syntax we prefer probably B to avoid implying that one person has two or more lives.[/nq]
Yes, but no two people live the same life, which is what B implies.

T.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Please help on this simple (!) issue. Which of these is correct? A) The Church was at the centre of everyone's lives. B) The Church was at the centre of everyone's life. (B) feels correct using everone as singular[/nq]
And it is, for the reason you put forth.
[nq:1]but (A) also sounds good![/nq]
Sad, so sad. You are losing your feel for Enlgish.

There is no basis for stating that "A" is correct, other than the prevalence of ungrammatical English today. Set your standards higher.
GFH

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Both are grammatically correct: so the problem is which syntax ... avoid implying that one person has two or more lives.[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes, but no two people live the same life, which is what B implies. T.[/nq]
It doesn't imply that.

Stephen
Lennox Head, Australia

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Please help on this simple (!) issue. Which of these is correct? A) The Church was at the centre of everyone's lives. B) The Church was at the centre of everyone's life.[/nq]
The rule is simple: One person, one life; many persons, many lives. What is not simple is the application of it: that is, of deciding how many persons we are in fact dealing with.
Whether "everyone" is to be construed as singular or plural in character is, nowadays, a divisive issue; by report, opinion seems especially divided by the Atlantic, with leftponders distinctly preferring the historical and logical tendency to construe a word containing "one" as a singular, distributive in force, while rightponders are more inclined to treat it as plural in character.

While one might say that the matter is thus one of taste, my own reckoning would be that till one can write "Everyone are entitled to their opinions" without at least raising an eyebrow, the word is best treated as meaning what its constituent parts say, "every one".

But the construction at issue, "The Church was at the centre of everyone's life", is especially forceful in putting the matter in one's face, owing to the genitive. Correctness is nice, but so is felicity. A better form is the classic "recast the sentence", leading to, perhaps:
The Church was at the centre of every life there.
Or as the Doctor so often puts it something of the sort.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Both are grammatically correct: so the problem is which syntax ... avoid implying that one person has two or more lives.[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes, but no two people live the same life, which is what B implies.[/nq]
I don't know about that. Both my neibhbor and my girlfriend keep trying to live my life.
[nq:1]T.[/nq]
Remove NOPSAM to email me..

Usenet · Answer

Stephen Calder schrieb:
[nq:2]Yes, but no two people live the same life, which is what B implies. T.[/nq]
[nq:1]It doesn't imply that.[/nq]
Everyone's lives are different. Everyone's life is different.

You're right. I withdraw my statement.
T.

In memorium Layal Najib
www.cpj.org

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The rule is simple: One person, one life; many persons, many lives.[/nq]
But the cat came back.
GFH

A singular/plural issue

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