Skip to content

Advanced Dunglish

Valkuilen voor gevorderden…

  • Home
    • More
    • Disclaimer
  • Blog
    • Popular posts
    • Words to avoid
  • Categories
  • Search
  • About
  • Contact

Category Archives: Plurals

The singular ‘they’

“If the patient can’t sleep, ask them if they need pain-killers.” This usage is perfectly acceptable.

Posted byMike WilkinsonDecember 10, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, PluralsTags:dunglish, engels, singular they1 Comment on The singular ‘they’

“Check out the brain on Brad”

You’ve only got one brain, even if you’ve got a lot of brains. Uh?

Posted byMike WilkinsonNovember 27, 2020Posted inAdvanced, PluralsTags:dunglish, engels, hersenen, hersensLeave a comment on “Check out the brain on Brad”

An Officer and a Gentleman

Nothing tricky about this one. A role or profession in the singular requires an article: “he is a teacher” or “she is the CFO”.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 16, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Articles, Grammar, PluralsTags:dunglish, engelsLeave a comment on An Officer and a Gentleman

Generalized case plurals

“I had a phone conversation with ten dentists” in English is a conference call, but in Dutch it would usually mean ten separate calls, one with each.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJune 18, 2020June 23, 2020Posted inAdvanced, PluralsTags:dunglish, engels1 Comment on Generalized case plurals

People persons

The plural of person is ‘people’, except in legalese and occasional old-fashioned texts.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJune 16, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, Plurals, Wrong registerTags:dunglish, engels, personen1 Comment on People persons

Training

There’s no such thing as “a training”. You either receive training – a general, uncountable noun – or take a training course.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJune 6, 2020June 13, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Articles, Fake English, Grammar, PluralsTags:dunglish, engels, training5 Comments on Training

Plurals are in the mind’s eye

Singular subjects require singular verbs and plural subjects require plural verbs… except when they don’t.

Posted byMike WilkinsonMay 27, 2020May 27, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, Hypercorrectness, Plurals, US-UK issues, VerbsTags:aantal, dunglish, engels, gebruik meervoud, meervoud, werkwoordenLeave a comment on Plurals are in the mind’s eye

The Netherlands

Um… surely not. The Dutch don’t make mistakes when referring to their own country, do they? It turns out to be a surprisingly tricky one.

Posted byMike WilkinsonMay 24, 2020May 31, 2020Posted inAddressing, Elementary, PluralsTags:adres, dunglish, engels, gebruik hoofdletters, gebruik meervoud, hoofdletters, NederlandLeave a comment on The Netherlands

Data

A singular noun. Yes, the origin of the word is the Latin plural of datum, but that’s not the point. Languages are dynamic and changing; if you don’t go with the flow, it can sound hypercorrect.

Posted byMike WilkinsonMay 22, 2020May 27, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, Hypercorrectness, Plurals, US-UK issuesTags:data, dataset, dunglish, engels, gebruik meervoud, gegevens, media, meervoud3 Comments on Data

19th and 20th centuries

The word “and” creates a plural in English – in this example, you’re talking about more than one century, after all.

Posted byMike WilkinsonMay 14, 2020May 21, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, PluralsTags:dunglish, eeuw, engels, gebruik meervoud, koppelteken, meervoudLeave a comment on 19th and 20th centuries

Site search

Advanced Dunglish, Blog at WordPress.com.