[blml] There they're

[Robert Geller]

I suppose the real question being asked is whether sports teams are plural 
or singular.
In the case of the UK (AFIK) plural is the answer.  Example (from a popular
song): "[Manchester] United are the greatest football team."

OTH,  in the US.....
The New York Giants are the current champion of the NFL (National
football league).   Americans will say, "the Giants are the champions"
but will also say "New York is the champion."   (I.e. verb is singular or
plural depending on how the team is specified ("New York" or "Giants").

Even though I'm American the UK usage makes a little more sense to me,
but the bottom line is that (as Churchill, who had a British father but an
American mother said), the US and UK are two countries divided by a 
common language.

-Bob


raija さんは書きました:
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "David Burn" <dalburn at btopenworld.com>
>To: "'Bridge Laws Mailing List'" <blml at amsterdamned.org>
>Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 7:50 PM
>Subject: [blml] There they're
>
>
>> This has nothing to do with the Laws of bridge at all. But I would be
>> grateful for any response, though you do not have to bother.
>>
>> In a report of an international basketball game between the newly-founded
>> People's Republic of Myunklstan and the strongly-fancied Allovia, the
>> following sentences appear:
>>
>> Myunklstan played superbly. [blank1] defended particularly well, and all 
>> of
>> [blank2] players contributed to the victory.
>>
>> Would you, if you were writing the report, replace [blank1] by "It" or by
>> "They"? Would you replace [blank2] by "its" or by "their"? Having made 
>> your
>> choice, would you consider the alternative: (a) perfectly acceptable; (b)
>> wrong but not objectionably so; (c) illiterate?
>>
>> David Burn
>> London, England
>
>The sentence seems like it was written by a non-native English speaker [I am 
>one...btw], regardless of which pronoun was used.  See Roger Pewick's 
>suggestion for edit to avoid the clumsiness of using any pronoun there.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-----------------------------------------------------
Robert (Bob) Geller,     Tokyo, Japan        geller at nifty.com