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British vs. American Grammar

To: Pete & Aprille Chadwell <pandachadwell@mac.com>
Subject: British vs. American Grammar
From: Dave Massey <105671.471@compuserve.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 19:19:40 -0500
Cc: Triumphs Mailing List <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Message text written by Pete & Aprille Chadwell
>Of course, Triumph is NOT plural, so the latter grammar is incorrect. 
Triumph is a SINGLE company, so the correct past-tense form of the 
verb is 'has built,' not 'have built.'  And yet whenever I've heard 
someone from Britain say something similar, they always say it 
incorrectly, as if the company's name is plural.  I understand that 
the company is made of up many PEOPLE, but in the example the word 
TRIUMPH is used, not 'the people of Triumph.'

You could correctly say "The PEOPLE of Triumph have built some 
beautiful sports cars."  But it I'd love to know how it is correct to 
say "Triumph HAVE built some beautiful sports cars."
<

Pete, I guess it's all in how you look at things.  If you think that a
company is a monolythic entity then "has" would be correct.  But if you
think that a company is a conglomeration of folks working toward a common
end (as I do) then I believe the Brits are correct.

But then what the heck is oreGANo?

;-)

Dave



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