Their nose(s) is/are black

Since each man has his own nose, the plural is better.

CB

their nose is black

I would use singular, although plural would do as well.

Sometimes with the latter ambiguity arises, but in this case it is obvious everyone has only one nose.

Their noses are black. How many noses has each one of them?

Their wives are black. Polygamy?

Is it what you were asking?

yes, thanks much.

I find "Their nose is black" conveys the meaning better.

I believe "their nose is black" implies that they have one shared nose, which makes sense in a sentence like "their television is broken" but not when each person possesses his own nose.

I agree. It should be "Their noses are black" since each man has a nose and there are 20 of them.

CogarHello,

There are 20 men and everyone has a black nose. What should be the tense?

Their nose(s) is/are black.

I would rephrase the sentence as follows:

There are 20 men and every one of them has a black nose.

To me, since 'every' is used, the noun should be 'nose'.

Yoong Liat

CogarHello,

There are 20 men and everyone has a black nose. What should be the tense?

Their nose(s) is/are black.

I would rephrase the sentence as follows:

There are 20 men and every one of them has a black nose.

To me, since 'every' is used, the noun should be 'nose'.

That is an interesting question.

Hmmm, how about this one:

Names are important. The first thing that you would like to know about people is their name(s).

So is it their name or their names? Please not that we are talking about

Feebs11

Yoong Liat

CogarHello,

There are 20 men and everyone has a black nose. What should be the tense?

Their nose(s) is/are black.

I would rephrase the sentence as follows:

There are 20 men and every one of them has a black nose.

To me, since 'every' is u