"a nation who has ..."?

[Your Name]

Well, in that case it's "people" that's plural, not "nation."


Rosemarie

|||||||//////__ __ __ __ __ The domino effect at work.



In a message dated 10/26/2007 9:13:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
chris at LASCRIBE.NET writes:


>
*Well yes, sure, but it's overwhelmingly singular in the contemporary
sources except in BrE when "nation" is a metonymy for "national
football/cricket/rugby/whatever team". Or of course in cases like "the X
people are a nation who [+ plural verb]".

(The firm/singular, company/plural example was from a quote that sounded
as if it had been re-written quite a bit. I imagine the original spoken
statement was a little muddled.)

Here is more -- the Guardian search I used: http://dwarfurl.com/74cd4

Chris Waigl
*

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