My current frustration was triggered by yet another television journalist who stumbled over the use of plural nouns. These poor chaps, who\u00a0one assumes are mostly university educated and should know better, are constantly screwing it up. As you will see on my other blog, I’ve\u00a0encountered some real clangers over the years, like:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 his entire fleet are<\/strong> equipped with cameras.\u201d<\/p>\nor<\/em><\/p>\n“A group of young Aboriginal leaders from Central Australia are<\/strong> calling for an apology …”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nEven the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which should stand as a bastion of correct english usage, is promoting and perpetuating this incorrect use. The greatest and most common travesties are seen these days in sports reporting, where the name of a sporting team is used as if it were a plural noun, such as:<\/p>\n
” … Australia are<\/strong> taking an early lead …”<\/p>\nor<\/p>\n
“… Manchester United are<\/strong> back in the winners circle …”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe team is a singular entity, and therefore references to the team by the team’s name are references to a singular entity and they should be treated as such. That is, the first example above should correctly be ” … Australia is<\/strong> taking an early lead …”<\/em>.<\/p>\nLast night I heard yet another clanger:<\/p>\n
” … of every one hundred dollars he earns, three dollars are<\/strong> spent on …”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nNow admittedly, I can understand how this one may have caused some confusion. After all, the subject here would appear to be plural – three<\/strong> dollars. But would you say “A million dollars are<\/strong> a lot of money”? No, you’d be laughed at, and rightly so. A million dollars is a singular sum of money, just as three dollars is a singular sum of money. In both instances that sum should be treated as a singular noun: “A million dollars is<\/strong> a lot of money”, and “… of every one hundred dollars he earns, three dollars is<\/strong> spent on …”.<\/p>\nI assume I will continue to be\u00a0frustrated by this sad misuse of our beautiful language, just as I will continue to be saddened by its devolution in so many other areas (as my other blog painfully itemises).<\/p>\n
Now don’t get me wrong – I know that any language is in a constant state of change and evolution. It must grow to accommodate new technologies, new philosophies, new ideologies and new cultural requirements. But this is not a positive evolution of the language I am witnessing, such as was seen in Shakespeare’s time (one of the greatest individual \u00a0improvers of english). It is a weakening, a lessening and a devolution<\/strong>.<\/p>\nI weep for our language sometimes, and I dread to think in what state it will be one or two hundred years hence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The trouble with being an anal-retentive writer is that you get very caught up with the only tool of your trade – the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/IMG_0313.jpg?fit=236%2C347","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2rvIN-T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":465,"url":"http:\/\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/speeking-inglish\/","url_meta":{"origin":55,"position":0},"title":"Speeking Inglish","date":"February 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I get that English is not an easy language to learn. That's fine. But to my mind, that just says that if English is your second (or third, or whatever) language, and you still haven't quite mastered it, then perhaps you need to get your attempts at written English checked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poor english"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/poorenglish2331.jpg?fit=1018%2C1068&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":391,"url":"http:\/\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/sydneys-contributions-to-public-displays-of-bad-english\/","url_meta":{"origin":55,"position":1},"title":"Sydney’s contributions to public displays of bad English","date":"November 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a few photos I've taken of\u00a0appalling examples of bad English\u00a0as I cruise around the streets of suburban Sydney. Some very public displays of poor language skills.","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/grammarnazi.jpg?fit=420%2C294&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":537,"url":"http:\/\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/more-abuse-of-english\/","url_meta":{"origin":55,"position":2},"title":"More abuse of English","date":"November 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm always struck by the poor use of the English language by those that have used it all their lives. I'm also always amused by those who want to try to demonstrate their superiority, and then prove the exact opposite in the actual execution of their message. Here are a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poor english"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/theirlearning.jpg?fit=634%2C418&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":73,"url":"http:\/\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/channel-7s-promo-department-cant-get-it-right-either\/","url_meta":{"origin":55,"position":3},"title":"Channel 7’s promo department can’t get it right either","date":"March 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Channel 7's latest promo for My Kitchen Rules is giving me the shits. Here I am trying to alert the world to this awful misuse and abuse of the language, and they push out one of the worst examples of bad english I've heard publicly for a long time. And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poor english"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/spellingpolice.jpg?fit=337%2C395&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":476,"url":"http:\/\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/new-lows-in-spoken-english\/","url_meta":{"origin":55,"position":4},"title":"New lows in spoken English","date":"June 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Two long-standing bad habits in spoken English are really starting to get on my nerves, as they continue to gain prominence and - by sheer weight of numbers - acceptance. First, adding unnecessary, redundant words. \"The reason why we did it ...\" The definition of \"reason\" in this context is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poor english"","img":{"alt_text":"Good English","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/goodenglish.jpg?fit=564%2C294&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":161,"url":"http:\/\/craig.delahoy.net\/myblog\/the-most-annoying-mispronunciations\/","url_meta":{"origin":55,"position":5},"title":"The most annoying mispronunciations","date":"October 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"As I get older I find I'm getting annoyed by more and more things that people do. Apparently that's quite normal, so I'm not going to worry about. 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