A Singular Problem

Something that both puzzles and annoys me is why so many people - including those who should know better - persist in referring to singular entities such as business firms, the government, etc., using the plural, e.g. 'The Government are'; the Labour Party are; Microsoft are', and so on and so infuriating.

No one ever says 'the school are', because everyone knows that a school is a singular entity, regardless of how many pupils and teachers it has. So why do people insist on saying, 'the council are', 'the committee are', the 'team are', 'the club are', to name but a few?

For goodness's sake, it doesn't take much intelligence to understand the logic involved:
The singular entity (regardless of how many individual units belong to it) is.
The plural entity are.

Now how difficult is that?

Apostrophes

Why do people have so much difficulty with apostrophes? It's not as though the rules for using them are at all difficult; with one exception (which I'll get to later), they have only two uses:


1) To indicate the possessive case, e.g. 'John's book'. If the word it is used with is plural, the apostrophe goes after the final s, e.g. 'the astronauts' spaceship'. In American English, it seems to be the custom to use s' for any word ending in s, whether it's plural or not. To me (a user of British English), this is not logical. A singular word is a singular word, regardless of what letter it ends with. e.g. Marcus's book, not Marcus' book. Sadly, the (incorrect, in my opinion) American usage seems to be catching on pretty much everywhere.


As a slight side issue, the plural of a word ending with s goes ses, e.g. Keeping up with the Joneses, not Keeping up with the Jones, and absolutely not Keeping up with the Jones'.


2) To indicate letters left out, usually in abbreviations, e.g. isn't, wasn't, can't, etc.
It should not be used with abbreviations of the type 'the 1920s', where '1920' is not an abbreviation in the sense of having letters left out, but simply uses a different type of notation, i.e. numbers, instead of letters.


And another thing - never, ever use an apostrophe with a simple plural. Just because a word ends with s, or uses initials instead of words (e.g. CD) it doesn't mean it needs an apostrophe in the plural. Monstrosities I have seen include: pizza's, CD's, label's...


And words that end with 'y' don't suddenly become plurals if they use the possessive case, e.g. the possessive case of lady is lady's, not ladies', which would actually mean 'belonging to the ladies', not 'belonging to the lady'.


The Exception - Yes, here it is, and it's its. The word its/it's can be short for 'it is', in which case it has an apostrophe, e.g. 'It's cold outside'. Or its can indicate the possessive, e.g. 'The staff had its annual outing', in which case it has no apostrophe.

Yes, I know this doesn't make sense, and, in fact, the apostrophe used to be used (much more logically) with both meanings, but at some point (possibly when English was revised and 'classicised' in the 18th century, which was when British English stopped using Fall and started using Autumn), the linguistic powers that be decided it was all too easy, and baited a trap for young players.


Oh, and this is not the exception that proves the rule - which is not at all what most people think it is. The Exception that Proves the Rule goes like this: If there is a rule that all girls with dark hair have long noses, the exception that proves the rule is not a dark-haired girl with a snub nose, but a fair-haired girl with a snub nose. Right?


Here endeth the first lesson. :-)


Sinech (Pedantic and Proud).