GalacticCactus Forum

Forums => English & Linguistics => Topic started by: Jonathon on January 30, 2007, 10:50:38 AM

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Jonathon on January 30, 2007, 10:50:38 AM

I know the technical answer on this one, but I'm wondering what the general feeling on this one is. Does it sound okay to most people?

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Porter on January 30, 2007, 11:03:54 AM

It sounds completely wrong.

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: sarcasticmuppet on January 30, 2007, 11:08:36 AM

Is it correct?  I'm taking off the beginning and going with "pupils get poor education", which sounds right.

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Jonathon on January 30, 2007, 11:17:34 AM

Note: This is a newspaper headline, so that explains the omitted "a" before "poor education."

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: JT on January 30, 2007, 11:22:41 AM

It sounds fine, but it's wrong.

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Porter on January 30, 2007, 11:26:07 AM

I don't know whether it's right or wrong, I just know that it sounds wrong to me.

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Tante Shvester on January 30, 2007, 12:44:08 PM

Right or wrong, I can't say "get" in that sentence.  It's "gets".  I'm trusting my ear on this one.

After all, I am a native speaker of the language.

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Porter on January 30, 2007, 12:49:39 PM

So is this guy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushism)

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Tante Shvester on January 30, 2007, 12:54:02 PM

There is no comparison.

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Jonathon on January 30, 2007, 12:55:51 PM

There's a world of difference between being simply a native speaker and being a fluent speaker.

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Porter on January 30, 2007, 12:55:53 PM

Quote

There is no comparison.

And yet, I managed to compare you anyway.

It must be a superpower.

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Farmgirl on January 30, 2007, 01:17:32 PM

It's a weird sentence either way. But technically the 'get' verb is supposed to go with the word "one" (as if the "in three pupils" wasn't there)

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Porter on January 30, 2007, 01:21:39 PM

What's the "correct" answer, Jonathon?

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: Jonathon on January 30, 2007, 01:41:08 PM

The correct answer is that it should be "gets," but the more I thought about it, the weirder it seemed. After all, they're not really talking about one student. But then I got to the point where I couldn't tell what sounded normal anymore.

Luckily I didn't actually have to edit it, because the context was that they were making fun of the (supposed) poor education of the author of the headline.

Title: Numerical agreement
Post by: pooka on January 30, 2007, 03:16:36 PM

Didn't one of you guys said editors are more responsible for headlines?