Inverneill House (off-topic grammar divergence comment)

ALAN MAIR

Message 60190 · 4 Jan 2011 21:16:37 · Fixed-width font · Whole thread

Robb Quint said

>I don't know when this typical divergence of usage may have first
> occurred. I can only assume that the British usage, now, as I have
> found,
> quite universal and typical for Britain (and perhaps elsewhere as well in
> the English-speaking world), is the more recently evolved usage and the
> more
> typically American usage the more traditional, as a singular noun, even a
> collective singular noun, traditionally in English grammar requires a
> third-person singular verb.

I was always amused at many of my grandparents generation who, after
enjoying a plate of broth would say "My, they were braw soup"

Alan
Cupar
Fife