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Believer Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
they have one or many
1. I sometimes have difficulty grasping the whole stream of thoughts when a sentence contains a plural noun and a "a something" phrase after that. If you think you caught the essence of my difficulty, please help. Sorry for not being clear with my question.
They have a good personality. (Why not write, They have good personalities?)
They have a great sense of humor. (OK, this I can manage.)
They have a sense of a ??? mission. (OK, it is pretty much discernable but not quite as clear as I would like it to be.)
They have an apple. (OK, they all have exactly one apple in possession.)
2. Why in the sentence below, the verb is "aren't" and not "isn't"?
He thinks he is Tarzan. No, he aren't.
They have a good personality. (Why not write, They have good personalities?)
They have a great sense of humor. (OK, this I can manage.)
They have a sense of a ??? mission. (OK, it is pretty much discernable but not quite as clear as I would like it to be.)
They have an apple. (OK, they all have exactly one apple in possession.)
2. Why in the sentence below, the verb is "aren't" and not "isn't"?
He thinks he is Tarzan. No, he aren't.
Top answer
Believer 1. I sometimes have difficulty grasping the whole stream of thoughts when a sentence contains a plural noun and a "a something" phrase after that. If you think you caught the essence of my difficulty, please help.
- Believer 1.
- I sometimes have difficulty grasping the whole stream of thoughts when a sentence contains a plural noun and a "a something" phrase after that.
- If you think you caught the essence of my difficulty, please help.
- Sorry for not being clear with my question.
- They have a good personality .
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7 Answers
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Believer1. I sometimes have difficulty grasping the whole stream of thoughts when a sentence contains a plural noun and a "a something" phrase after that. If you think you caught the essence of my difficulty, please help. Sorry for not being clear with my question.
They have a good personality. (Why not write, They have good personalities?)
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He thinks he is Tarzan. No, he aren't. I don't know where you found it, but it should be "isn't".
Or: No, he doesn't. It depends on whether he is not Tarzan, or whether he does not think he is Tarzan.
Or: No, he doesn't. It depends on whether he is not Tarzan, or whether he does not think he is Tarzan.
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They have a good personality can sometimes be used in place of 'she or he has a good personality', where one doesn't want to specify the *** of the person concerned. So 'they have a good personality' can be correct if the 'they' is singular (& of course you can't write 'they has a good personality'. In the cases you mention I suspect this is what was meant.
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Well, anonymous makes a good point that sometimes we use "they" when we don't know which gender we are referring to (although whether doing so is correct or not is a matter of debate), but I think if you know the person well enough to know that he or she has a good personality, you probably know that person's gender.
But I guess you could see a situation like "I don't know who has been le
But I guess you could see a situation like "I don't know who has been le
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the editorial style "they."*?
From a philosophical standpoint, if a person doesn't know if someone is a he or she, then the person in question could be referred to as a person, someone, or other indefinite singular entity.
From a philosophical standpoint, if a person doesn't know if someone is a he or she, then the person in question could be referred to as a person, someone, or other indefinite singular entity.
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