[etni] Fw: Tamar's question

----- Original Message ----- 
From: sbshai - sbshai@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Tamar's question


I've inadvertently deleted the relevant ETNI digest, but I recall that 
Tamar's question concerned the issue of collective nouns; in the example she 
gave, the word "class" is a collective noun -- that is, though it's singular 
in form, it includes more than one person.  (Another common example is the 
noun 'family'.)

Tamar's answer to her student was correct -- i.e., we say "Does the class go 
on trips?" rather than "Do..." because a singular noun { we're talking about 
a class, not classes!} must take a singular verb.  Moreover, in this 
sentence it is clear that we're referring to the class as a single entity 
and that we are speaking about the action of the majority of the group; it 
doesn't matter whether a few individual members are excluded from the 
question because it's known they never go on trips.

Hope that helps!
Batya


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