Grammar Nazis - I need a ruling NYTs
POSTED BY: pizmobeach
UPDATED: Monday, November 8, 2010 02:40
VIEWED: 4194
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http://www.nytimes.com/
EDUCATION LIFE
The China Boom
A wave of Chinese students is choosing American colleges.
and again:
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2010/11/06/education/edlife/index.html?
hp
The China Boom
By DAN LEVIN
A wave of Chinese undergraduates is choosing American colleges.
Can't be right, can it??
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I assume you mean their use of "is" rather than "are." I know it doesn't sound right, but the subject of the sentence, wave, is singular, so they are technically correct.
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Quote:Waves of Chinese undergraduates are choosing American colleges and sidestepping the "is/are" issue.
Originally posted by pizmobeach:
A wave of Chinese undergraduates is choosing American colleges.
Edit 1:
Serenity - The Shepherd's Tale.cbr @ http://narod.ru/disk/27064891000/Serenity%20-%20The%20Shepherd%27s%20T
ale.cbr.html
I testify that it is an authentic copy of the very violent world that the Shepherd lives in. (lived in? will live in? There's a grammatical issue for you to ponder.)
Edit 2: per Cybersnark's comment below.
The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by two:
the very violent world that the Shepherd lives in. (lived in? will live in? There's a grammatical issue for you to ponder.)
-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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Yup, the wave IS choosing American colleges. The students ARE choosing. Or waves ARE choosing.
Students individually ARE choosing, but the group IS choosing.
Think in terms of a sports team: The Dallas Cowboys ARE doing something, but the Dallas Cowboys football team IS doing the same thing. It's all in the grouping... A crowd of people is a crowd of individuals, all of whom are doing something - but the crowd itself IS doing the thing.
The modern definition of "socialist" is anyone who's winning an argument against a tea-bagger.
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... go fuck yourself, Mr. President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
I assume you mean their use of "is" rather than "are." I know it doesn't sound right, but the subject of the sentence, wave, is singular, so they are technically correct.
Thx -
Yes, and I was aware of the rule, er, vaguely, "probably one of those it-sounds-wrong-but-is-right rules." And what *seems* like the plural subject is in the preposition dead zone, "of Chinese students..."
Still, it sounds wrong.
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Quote:
Originally posted by two:Quote:Waves of Chinese undergraduates are choosing American colleges and sidestepping the "is/are" issue.
Originally posted by pizmobeach:
A wave of Chinese undergraduates is choosing American colleges.
According to the NYTs it's just a single wave, so that would be inaccurate reporting - details.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Yup, the wave IS choosing American colleges. The students ARE choosing. Or waves ARE choosing.
Don't be ridiculous, waves can't choose anything, not even the beach they crash up upon - go back to school, preferably near an ocean.
Face it grammar pusses: that's just not good writing. There are some editors for which that sentence would have been not allowed.
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Quote:
Originally posted by pizmobeach:Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Yup, the wave IS choosing American colleges. The students ARE choosing. Or waves ARE choosing.
Don't be ridiculous, waves can't choose anything, not even the beach they crash up upon - go back to school, preferably near an ocean.
Face it grammar pusses: that's just not good writing. There are some editors for which that sentence would have been not allowed.
Oh, it's not GOOD writing - but it is CORRECT writing. What they needed was some stuffy older editor with some gravitas to step into the breech and come to the fore, and haughtily say, "This sentence, sir, is an abomination; it is, quite simply put, an affront, the likes of which and the kind, up with which we dare not put!"
I think that would have fixed it. Sadly, I was out of the office (note: I wasn't out of the office sadly, nor was I sad to be out of the office) and wasn't consulted. :D
The modern definition of "socialist" is anyone who's winning an argument against a tea-bagger.
AURaptor's Greatest Hits:
Friday, September 24, 2010
I hate Obama's America. You're damn right about that.
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 18:26 To President Obama:
Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar.
Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.
... go fuck yourself, Mr. President.
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