[Ads-l] "... there's just one of them"

[Wilson Gray]

> would "... there's just one of it." have been better?

IMO, yes, since there is just one of it.

"The earth has several moons, but there's just one of them visible to the
naked eye."

On Wed, Jul 25, 2018 at 3:05 AM Chris Waigl <chris at lascribe.net> wrote:

> I was just listening to the latest CBC radio broadcast of "Quirks and
> Quarks" (as a podcast, but no matter). Here's how the host introduced a new
> topic:
>
> "You've probably noticed that our planet has exactly one moon. And it's a
> pretty good one, as moons go, but still, there's just one of them."
>
> At this point I had a weird 200 milliseconds of wondering if the "them" is
> the gender-neutral singular they (referring to the Moon??), which it
> obviously isn't. But it nontheless came across as ever so slightly weird.
> OTOH, would "... there's just one of it." have been better?
>
> For people, I do hear stuff like "[She's awesome, but we need to make sure
> not to overload her with work:] There's just one of her."
>
> Idly speculating,
>
> Chris
>
> --
> Chris Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
> http://eggcorns.lascribe.net . http://chryss.eu
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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