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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Treatment of "languages"

Having a heated "debate" about the grammatical treatment of languages.

eg

"Modern foreign languages are an area of interest"

or

"Modern foreign languages is an area of interest"

I'm stubborn, but I argue for the latter while 3 people say its the former.

help is much appreciated!
  

Top answer

It depends upon how you construe "languages". You are both right. Often a plural will be treated as singular in cases like this, where a copulative verb joins nouns of mismatched number, but it reads funny no matter how you look at it.

— Enoon

  • It depends upon how you construe "languages".
  • You are both right.
  • Often a plural will be treated as singular in cases like this, where a copulative verb joins nouns of mismatched number, but it reads funny no matter how you look at it.
  • English doesn't handle this well.
  • The best thing to do is to write around the problem.
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3 Answers
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It depends upon how you construe "languages". You are both right. Often a plural will be treated as singular in cases like this, where a copulative verb joins nouns of mismatched number, but it reads funny no matter how you look at it. English doesn't handle this well. The best thing to do is to write around the problem.
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Hi, Sorry to change subjects. But I've come across a confusing set of phrases. Could you tell me how to naturally say them? When is for okay and when is considering ok? In some, for is not ok I think.

For the amount I wear collared shirts, I don't need more than 2 of them. I only wear them on special occasions. I don't need a bunch.
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For the amount I wear collared shirts, I don't need more than two of them. That's not natural (and write out single-digit numbers unless there is a reason not to). There are a lot of ways to put that: "For all I wear ....", "For as seldom as I wear ....", "As little as I wear ....", more.

This dress is too expensive for the use I have for it. Close, but no cigar. "Tha
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