Their life or lives
Many kind thanks to whoever can answer if the following sentence is correct or not:
Americans value independence in all aspects of their life/lives.
I always struggles with if the subject is plural should the object be plural too. However, it sounds odd given the possessive pronoun their, as Americans on possess one life.
Thank you again for any feedback on this - you guys who answer are awesome!
Top answer
postmodernbliss Americans value independence in all aspects of their life/lives. In my opinion both would work in your sentence. The singular life emphasises the American way of life or lifestyle, whereas the plural lives refers to the life of each individual American.
- postmodernbliss Americans value independence in all aspects of their life/lives.
- In my opinion both would work in your sentence.
- The singular life emphasises the American way of life or lifestyle, whereas the plural lives refers to the life of each individual American.
- The sailors lost their lives in the shipwreck.
- The life of sailors is hard.
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postmodernblissAmericans value independence in all aspects of their life/lives.
In my opinion both would work in your sentence. The singular life emphasises the American way of life or lifestyle, whereas the plural lives refers to the life of each individual American.
The sailors lost their lives in the shipwreck.
0That is perennial problem even among native speakers, and we often disagree. In this case, "lives" seems better to me, becasue they do indeed each have one life, and that is what you mean.
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