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0 pointspierrefar17y ago0 comments

Not really a British thing.

The University of Nottingham (which is most certainly British) has this in its style guide: "similarly, use the company is rather than the company are" [1]

The Economist (a publication of a British company) has a style guide that has this gem: "A government, a party, a company (whether Tesco or Marks and Spencer) and a partnership (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) are all it and take a singular verb. So does a country, even if its name looks plural." [2]

[1] http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/public-affairs/uon-style-book/si...

[2] http://www.economist.com/research/styleGuide/index.cfm?page=...

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6 comments · 2 top-level

indiejade17y ago· 4 in thread

Dude, I agree with you, but who is dishing out the hatred? For the sake of Pete, why have I been maliciously down-voted?

jordyhoyt17y ago

First, grammar correction is hardly adding to the discussion about the article's content. Second, it is a fairly common practice to pluralize the names of companies in countries that are not the United States. It throws me every time I see it too, but I kind of like it becuase it helps me remember a company isn't some monolithic idea, but a collection of individuals.

nkurz17y ago

No hatred or malice, just a desire to maintain the comment quality here. I voted down your first comment because it seemed pedantic and ignorant of common British usage. Had yours not been the top comment in the thread, I probably would have ignored it.

On the other hand, I voted up this parent question because I assume your question was genuine. I also would have voted up any insightful commentary on the actual settlement whether I agreed with it or not.

sho17y ago

Because people find useless pendantry an annnoying waste of time? The text is on a third party site! What do you expect anyone here to do about it?

Mail the author if you feel so strongly about it. In your comments here it would be better to respond to the meat of the argument presented, not any minor grammatical errors it may or may not contain.

indiejade17y ago

Not.

We on YC News respect style, in various forms. We don't respect whining. I've been on YC News longer than you and can see exactly what you're doing; it's not cool.

2 more replies

dchest17y ago

Isn't it impressive that languages evolve?!

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