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#2 (permalink) Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:59 am The team was vs. the team were? |
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Hi Torsten,
I know I've said this before but I am happy with both 'was' and 'were'. It seems to me that you can either regard 'team' as a single entity or as a group of people. I would go on to say that the idea of the team being 'disappointed' seems to suggest more the human aspect and that would suggest to me even more the idea of a group of people.
Alan _________________ English as a Second Language You can read my ESL story Present Simple |
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#3 (permalink) Wed Sep 16, 2009 12:07 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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Hi, Torsten, In my opinion both "was disappointed" and "were disappointed'' are possible. Oops! Alan's answer came first and I can't say better. Good luck, Yuri _________________ Everything is Anything.
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#4 (permalink) Wed Sep 16, 2009 19:06 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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Hi Alan and Yuri,
Thanks a lot for your answers. I agree with both of you but apparently Barron's don't or shall I say "doesn't"....
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#5 (permalink) Wed Sep 16, 2009 22:23 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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Reading between the lines....
Hi Torsten (and Alan and Yuri)
There's a problem: 'was disappointed' is the only acceptable option. The reason for this is that the question is multiple choice. Strictly a team (or a group) is a singular entity. The purist will argue (correctly) that this is the subject of the verb, not the members (of the team). Therefore, regardless of what Alan, or I, or anyone else may think ought to be acceptable, if both are on offer, the item writer is looking for the singular. The truth is that it is a badly written item. It should not have been included. Both structures are in such common usage, that both should now be allowed.
If the question had been an 'open cloze' both answers should have been allowed, even though some people would still disagree. It's another of those situations where 'you will never be wrong if you choose...' (in this case <was disappointed>). You may find the author of the book is independent of the examining body, and they would never actually include such a question. Until you can be sure of that, however, it's safest to make your students aware of the rule. Otherwise, in such a case, they may (got that sticky key fixed, Alan ;) ) lose a point. |
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#6 (permalink) Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:18 am The team was vs. the team were? |
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Dear Torsten,
I think the right and the only possible answer is 'was disppointed'.
My explanation:
Here, in this context, we are speaking about 'a' team or 'a' group. Not about the persons.
The members of the board are disappointed.
The board is disappointed. |
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#7 (permalink) Fri Feb 19, 2010 16:08 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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This is yet another case of grammar versus tradition.
A company or team or any other group is a single unit and thus should take a singular verb.
However, in most UK varieties they are often treated as plural. But, the problem arises that they don't treat them as plural all the time.
I would say you can use both, but be warned that non-British speakers will have the initial reaction of it being incorrect. Most word processors will also classify plural usage as an error. _________________ There's no such thing as an exception to the rule...
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#8 (permalink) Fri Feb 19, 2010 16:10 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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Oh and the TOEFL and TOEIC and SAT/GRE will likely consider plural usage incorrect which could cost valuable points. _________________ There's no such thing as an exception to the rule...
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#9 (permalink) Fri Feb 19, 2010 17:47 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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Quote: | Thanks a lot for your answers. I agree with both of you but apparently Barron's don't or shall I say "doesn't".... | As I'm sure you're well aware, you've had exactly the same situation in your own tests on quite a number of occasions, Torsten. I can't help but think of a particular test in which you and Alan have steadfastly refused to change one of the options that is supposedly incorrect. Even though that option reflects a usage that is correct and also extremely common in English, your test continues to proclaim that choosing that word is simply incorrect. Why? Because the usage is common in AmE, but less common in BE? Tsk, tsk tsk.
As for your initial question, yes, I would expect an American to always choose "was" in that sentence. However, I'm also aware that a Brit might possibly choose "were". So, I don't think the use of "were" should be ruled out. Probably the best thing to do would be to replace that option with one that would be more universally incorrect.
So, do you think Barron's should simply ignore the situation and simply leave "were" as an incorrect option? Or do you think they ought to fix that? lol
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#10 (permalink) Fri Feb 19, 2010 18:56 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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If you google the phrase 'the police were' you get 19 million results while 'the police are' produces even 158 million results. Who cares how many those results are American, Canadian, British, Irish, Australian or New Zealand English? What counts is that those phrases are 'correct' English.
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#11 (permalink) Fri Feb 19, 2010 19:10 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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Be careful Torsten, 'the police' is a group of individuals so it would get a plural in all varieties, but 'the police department' or 'the police force' is a unit and would get a singular.
Try googling something like 'coca cola are' or 'IBM are' versus is. _________________ There's no such thing as an exception to the rule...
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#13 (permalink) Fri Feb 19, 2010 19:40 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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Yes but are you referring to the team as an entity is as several individuals together?
Think about it: Seimens engineers are on strike (a group of individuals) but Siemens engineers some of the best trains (siemens is an entity) _________________ There's no such thing as an exception to the rule...
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OxfordBlues I'm here quite often ;-)

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#14 (permalink) Fri Feb 19, 2010 19:45 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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Also the reason I don't like to give much credence to the reasoning behind the British version is that their justification for why it's plural (that they are comprised of individuals) doesn't work as often as it does.
Brits may say 'Siemens are a German company' but they won't say 'Bavaria are a German state'.
Siemens is made up of employees and Bavaria is made up of Bavarians (and Franconians and Schwabians and such). So how can one be justified as plural and the other not? _________________ There's no such thing as an exception to the rule...
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OxfordBlues I'm here quite often ;-)

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#15 (permalink) Fri Feb 19, 2010 20:13 pm The team was vs. the team were? |
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How the heck did the police become involved with financial matters? lol
Torsten, my post was directed specifically at the sentence/exercise you posted at the beginning of this thread. For that sentence, I would expect any average American to automatically reject "were" and choose "was" -- especially since there is no additional context that MIGHT possibly lead them to decide that saying "team were" MIGHT also be OK.
The word "police" is a different case entirely. Basically, that is a word that is universally used only as a plural word, never as a singular one. Both American and British dictionaries note that fact. So, that particular word is not relevant to the question at hand.
Anyway, you never did answer my question: What do you think Barron's should do? Should they just leave that exercise as is and continue to suggest that the word "team" can never be correctly used in a plural sense? Or do you think they ought to edit that exercise? :-)
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