Half-measures

Question

hi, I wanna ask a native speaker of english if the following sentences are correct, if not please give me a correct paraphrase just as close to the original as possible.

1. "Isn't cheating just half-measures?"
2. "Cheating is easy, but isn' it just half-measures?"
3. "Everyone thinks they can handle it"

4. "There isn't enough people to get it done"
5. "There aren't enough people to get it done"

about3, is the use of "they" a mistake?

about 4, I often hear this kind of construction(There's + noun in plural) in films but would that kind of sentence be approved in academic writting? is it the kind of mistake that you would have corrected by your english teacher but everybody uses it anyway?

thanks in advance
anna

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

These are OK:

1. "Isn't cheating just a half-measure?"
2. "Cheating is easy, but isn' it just a half measure?"
3. "Everyone thinks they can handle it."-- 'They' is a common singular non-gender-specific pronoun in all but very formal situations.

4. "There aren't enough people to get it done."-- 'People' is too close to the verb to make the singular a reasonable choice.

5. "There aren't enough people to get it done."

Mr Wordy · Answer

1. "Isn't cheating just half-measures?" -- Doesn't seem natural, and I don't really understand what you mean. The dictionary definition of "half measures" is "an action or policy that is not forceful or decisive enough". I don't see how this meaning fits the rest of the sentence.

2. "Cheating is easy, but isn' it just half-measures?" -- Same coment as #1.

3. "Everyone thinks they can handle it" -- I assume "they" refers to "everyone" (rather than to some other group of people, which is another possible reading). The sentence is fine in conversational English. The alternative is something like "Everyone thinks he or she can handle it", which, though formally correct, seems very awkward and cumbersome in everyday language.

4. "There isn't enough people to get it done" -- I would avoid this. "There's + plural noun" creeps into conversational English and is tolerated in cases such as "There's an awful lot of people here" (which I might easily say myself). However, this kind of usage seems less acceptable to me with "There isn't" and "There is" (no contraction), and I don't find the sentence you give here very agreeable. "There's + plural noun" would not be accepted in formal writing (where, in fact, one wouldn't use "There's" at all).

5. "There aren't enough people to get it done" -- Fine.

Half-measures

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