Everybody put their money?

[yasmine]

Test No. errors/advan-1 "Give me the bill", question 6

At the beginning everybody put their money into internet enterprises.

(a) At
(b) everybody
(c) their
(d) into

Test No. errors/advan-1 "Give me the bill", answer 6

In the beginning everybody put their money into internet enterprises.

Correct entry: In
The error was: (a) At

please can you tell me why did you put everybody put their money, instead of his money ?

thanks

[Alan]

Hi,

The use of 'their' is a type of impersonal possessive adjective. The alternative 'his/her' sounds very awkward.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[Ahmadov]

In the sentence of the test the correction should be "in the beginning", which I failed to find. Apart from "in the beginning" people also use "at the beginning". However, I understand from this test that their is some difference between "in the beginning" and "at the beginning". Can anyone, please, explain this difference providing examples? Thank you beforehand.

[Alan]

Hi Ahmadov,

There is a small difference. In the beginning is an expression that can stand alone and usually means at first/initially.

At the beginning is usually followed by of and a noun or noun phrase of time or place:

At the beginning of the road/At the beginning of the week.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
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[Ahmadov]

This is great (Well, I am not sure whether this should be "This is great" or "that is great"). I do not know how to thank the creators of this web site, from where we can learn what we cannot learn from other sources. Thank you again.

[Alan]

Hi Ahmadov,

Whether you say this or that in your expression (and you can use either), thank you for your comments.

Alan
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[adam9092816]

I was searching for proof that my girlfriend is mistaken when she says "beings that" instead of "being that" or "because" when I stumbled on this site and took a quiz. It seems to me, being a native English speaker, that the "in" instead of "at" correction is nitpicking. As it stands, with no other context, "In the beginning" sounds biblical whereas "At the beginning" could mark the start of a secular epoch. There should be an "of" something to take the edge off the grandeur, like "At the beginning of the dot-com stock market bubble, ....." That was the sentence I was imagining when trying to answer question 6 and why I couldn't think of any particular errors to correct.

Off topic, I would appreciate any tips on where to find "beings that" errors. Thank you!

[Conchita]

[adam9092816]

Thank you Conchita for your reply. It looks like most of those "beings that" hits on Google are from MySpace accounts and message boards - two of the largest sources of bad grammar or, as you more politely say, non-standard English.

[Alan]

Hi Adam,

I'll have to beg to differ over in the beginning/at the beginning. Clearly you are thinking of something like: In the beginning was the word ... But that doesn't alter the use of In the beginning as a perfectly mundane expression suggesting at first and as I explained 2 years ago!!, it can stand alone. As for beings that, well that's plumb daft. You can find comfort in Lord Google for practically everything.

Alan
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[Yankee]

Hi Adam

I agree with Alan about "in the beginning". I don't think there's anything odd about the usage. Of course there is also the association you seem to be referring to, but Ms Google finds sentences such as this (about the Boston Red Sox):
"In the beginning, they were called as the Boston Americans..."

I'd never heard "beings that" before, but I had heard "being as" and "being that". Webster's lists both of those as "chiefly dialect" .

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Conchita]

I wasn't familiar with the phrase, either. The one I know and have used is 'seeing as'.

seeing (that) conjunction (INFORMAL seeing as, NOT STANDARD seeing as how)
considering or accepting the fact that; as:
We may as well go to the concert, seeing as we've already paid for the tickets.
(Cambridge A.L.D.)

And, according to Bartleby.com:

seeing, seeing as, seeing as how, seeing that

The participial Seeing [that] she wasn’t ready, he sat down is Standard. Seeing as and seeing as how are conjunctions meaning “because” and are limited to the lower levels at best; some conservatives consider both locutions—especially seeing as how—countrified and unacceptable at any level.

[prezbucky]

I was under the impression that "everybody" is singular and, as such, should be paired with singular pronouns (in this case, the most likely choices are "his" and "her" -- never "his/her" per a journalism school prof).

Is it more important for usage to sound good, or to be correct?
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[Yankee]

Hello prezbucky and welcome to the forum.

You're absolutely right: the word "everybody" is grammatically third person singular.

So, which would you prefer to use instead of "their": his or her?
But before you decide, how can you sure that "everybody" consisted of exclusively males or exclusively females? Which is correct?

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[prezbucky]

one must choose and stand by said choice!

hehe
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.