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Edward Jarvis Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Mixed singular and plural nouns

Folks

I work in local government as a proof reader/copy editor, and I repeatedly come across sentences of the following sort:
  • People who own a dog need a licence.
Now, on the assumption that we're talking about more than one dog overall and more than one licence overall, I would change this to one of the following:
  • People who own dogs need licences.
  • Every person who owns a dog needs a licence.
Would I be right to do so?

Thanks

Ed
  

Top answer

I agree, but I don't think it is a great concern, as we must rely on the reader's common sense. For example, your first alternative makes it possible that only multiple dogs need licensing. If we did not rely on common sense, then we would also be worrying about who needed the license, the dog or the owner.

— Mister Micawber

  • I agree, but I don't think it is a great concern, as we must rely on the reader's common sense.
  • For example, your first alternative makes it possible that only multiple dogs need licensing.
  • If we did not rely on common sense, then we would also be worrying about who needed the license, the dog or the owner.
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3 Answers
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I agree, but I don't think it is a great concern, as we must rely on the reader's common sense. For example, your first alternative makes it possible that only multiple dogs need licensing. If we did not rely on common sense, then we would also be worrying about who needed the license, the dog or the owner.
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Many thanks for your reply.

I'd agree that it's a bit pedantic, but my first alternative is merely ambiguous, whereas the original is actually wrong – or at least that's how it seems to me, which is why I raised the question. I wasn't sure whether there was some convention that I was missing.
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The sentence is fine. It literally means people who own one dog need to be possession of a single license. Possession cannot apply to a dog in the legal sense, and that sense is the only way the term "license" can be interpreted.

It does beg the question, what of people who own two dogs? But nobody asked that question, did they?

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