Singular or plural?

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:35 PM -0600 12/29/09, Scot LaFaive wrote:
>Technically, they were right to use the plural "were" since "barracks" is
>the plural of "barrack," though I don't know who uses "barrack" these days.
>
>Scot

Those misspelling the President's first name?

LH

>
>On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 2:14 PM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
>>  Subject:      Singular or plural?
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  In a story reporting the location of prior chief executives at times of =
>>  national crisis (occasioned by the recent attempt to bomb a NWA flight), =
>>  CBS reported, "President Reagan was on vacation when the Marine barracks =
>>  in Beirut were bombed in 1983".  I would have used "was".  But I don't =
>>  really know which is appropriate.
>>
>>
>>  Bill Palmer
>>
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>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>
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