[Ads-l] The United States Is/Are

[Bill Mullins]

I've heard many times that before the Civil War, the usual phrase was "the United States are", and after, it was "the United States is".  The United States went from a plural noun to a singular one.

Does anyone know where this originated?  Have any of you tried to prove or disprove it?  (Too many databases ignore "is" and "are" to make it easy to check.)

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org