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From Stephen Harrington:
Technically that is correct, but these days what were once considered plural nouns, like data and media, have become collective nouns (much to the chagrin of pedants everywhere) in everyday speech (and writing). That is why we hear things like "The data shows that..." or "The media is saying that..." If one is going to treat data and media as collective nouns, then one should follow the verb-agreement rule that we discussed here last week. Yes, we were negligent in not mentioning the fact that data, media, and similar words are technically plural versus collective. Thanks to all of you who wrote to take us to task. The foreign plural rule sounds reasonable but in practice it just gets too complicated. Take octopus, for instance. The accepted plural is octopusses; only pedants and marine biologists use the original Greek plural, octopoda. Many people, on the other hand, attempt a "foreign" plural but assume, incorrectly, that the word is Latin and say octopi. (Such individuals have no valid excuse for existence and should be smacked upside their sorry heads with a copy of Webster's. -Eds.) And that's just the classical languages. What about exotic tongues like Tagalog? Do you say boondocks or... what is the plural of bundook? |
From
Patrick et Nicole Grécourt:
Ah, this is another one of those crazy phrases which, in French, means little or nothing (literally "words of the hours of Gousses") but when uttered in French sounds rather like the English name Mother Goose, of fairy tale fame. There are whole books of such rhymes - surreal gibberish in French but hilariously close to the sound of English nursery rhymes. |
From Sparky:
Yes, we were behind in updating the back issues. All should now be right with the world - both Issue 139 and Issue 140 are now available through the Back Issues page. |
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Last Updated 12/11/01 07:08 PM