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Plural problems



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
How is the word "would" used in this phrase: it would rain in summer mo | A ship is a "she"?
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Plural problems #1 (permalink) Tue Jul 12, 2005 17:17 pm   Plural problems		  
Alan used a very interesting example sentence in this forum.
Quote:
The police are seeking information


It was an example on the usage of "to seek" but I'm more interested in the rest of the sentence.

Why do you write "the police are..."?

Besides, I know that there is no plural of the word "information" in English. But could you use it in a plural meaning, for example "all the information that were entered into the database" - because in this context it would mean "a lot of data"?

The interesting thing is, that the literal translation of the German version of this sentence would be "The police is seeking informations". ;-)
SaschaT
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
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Plural #2 (permalink) Thu Jul 14, 2005 17:18 pm   Plural		  
Hi Sascha,

You can say all the information was entered. As for the police, nouns that describe groups of people such as family, team or police usually are referred to in the plural, especially in British English.

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Torsten
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