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fluttergirl
Guest
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| Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 12:04 pm
Post subject: was or were |
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Would you say "almost one billion US dollars was earned as revenue" or
"almost one billion US dollars were earned as revenue". The latter just
doesn't say right, does it?
cheers |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 4:11 pm
Post subject: Re: was or were |
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| Quote: | Would you say "almost one billion US dollars was earned as revenue" or
"almost one billion US dollars were earned as revenue".
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Was. Sums of money are singular. "Five dollars" is plural only if you
mean five $1 bills or coins.
--
Mark Brader "Actually, $150, to an educational institution,
Toronto turns out to be about the same as a lower amount."
msb@vex.net -- Mark Horton |
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Robert Lieblich
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 4:54 am
Post subject: Re: was or were |
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Mark Brader wrote:
| Quote: |
Would you say "almost one billion US dollars was earned as revenue" or
"almost one billion US dollars were earned as revenue".
Was. Sums of money are singular. "Five dollars" is plural only if you
mean five $1 bills or coins.
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No quarrel here.
Just in case -- this example presents a choice between singular
indicative and plural indicative. It has nothing to do with the
subjunctive. (If that doesn't make any sense, ignore it.)
--
Liebs |
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Aokay (David G. Bryce)
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 8:00 pm
Post subject: Re: was or were |
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On Thu, 05 May 2005 18:54:53 -0400, Robert Lieblich
<Robert.Lieblich@Verizon.net> wrote:
| Quote: | Mark Brader wrote:
Would you say "almost one billion US dollars was earned as revenue" or
"almost one billion US dollars were earned as revenue".
Was. Sums of money are singular. "Five dollars" is plural only if you
mean five $1 bills or coins.
No quarrel here.
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Fluttergirl:
I think that these guys are leading you astray. If you were taking
a survey, your "would you say" question gets a "was" answer from me
too because *I* too would *always* say it in your sentence, which
reads as a statement made about a revenue statement in which the
billion bucks *is* just an item among items. But Brader, with whom
Liebs has no quarrel, goes on to state a rule. This rule, if it's
really a rule at all, is frequently broken by English speakers of
all kinds.
Consider a sentence like this:
Fifty billion dollars _____ wasted in the first six
months of the Iraqi adventure.
If you inserted "were," *I* would not consider you wrong. Same for
"was."
And, if you were in England and if the "dollars" were taken out,
"fifty billion" might well become "fifty billions" and your
insertion would almost certainly be "were."
Not a simple matter at all.
aok |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 7:13 am
Post subject: Re: was or were |
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We were asked:
| Quote: | Would you say "almost one billion US dollars was earned as revenue" or
"almost one billion US dollars were earned as revenue".
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I (Mark Brader) wrote:
| Quote: | Was. Sums of money are singular. "Five dollars" is plural only if you
mean five $1 bills or coins.
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And Bob Lieblich agreed. David Bryce now writes:
| Quote: | I think that these guys are leading you astray. If you were taking
a survey, your "would you say" question gets a "was" answer from me
too because *I* too would *always* say it in your sentence... But
Brader ... goes on to state a rule. This rule, if it's really a rule
at all, is frequently broken ...
Consider a sentence like this:
Fifty billion dollars _____ wasted in the first six
months of the Iraqi adventure.
If you inserted "were," *I* would not consider you wrong.
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I would. It's a tempting error because of the proximity of the
plural noun, but it's still an error. I say.
| Quote: | And, if you were in England and if the "dollars" were taken out,
"fifty billion" might well become "fifty billions" ...
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Yes, that takes the plural, but it's a different construct.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "It's the almost correct solutions that
msb@vex.net are the most dangerous..." -- Dave Eisen
My text in this article is in the public domain. |
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