The
Grammar
Logs
# 337

QUESTION
What is the correct verb tense in the following two sentences, and give the rationale used.
  1. A total of 149 tests (was, were) conducted during the demonstration.
  2. A number of men (was, were) killed.
In item 2, i think that if the word "number" is preceeded by "the" then use the singular verb and if the word "number" is preceeded by "a" then use the plural verb. Is this correct? If so, does this rule apply to sentence 1 as well? Thanks
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Bel Air, Maryland Tue, Aug 3, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
It seems to work. "A total of 149 tests were conducted." "The total of airplane crashes has gone down dramatically. . . ." It's not really a matter of tense, though; it's a matter of subject-verb agreement. "The total" is singular; "a total" is plural. It works very consistently with "number," and I assume the same is true with "total," but I hadn't thought of it before.

QUESTION
What is the word which describes addind words such as eh, hmm, like, uh, um into your sentence.
EX. It is quite, um, a humid day. The rain, like, cools things down a little. Um, I think that we should, um, do something today, but um, I can't think of anything.
Thank you.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Washington, D.C. Tue, Aug 3, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Fowler calls them "filler."

Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996. Used with the permission of Oxford University Press.
QUESTION
Which is correct: There are two types of car on the road, or There are two types of cars on the road? That is, in the expression "types of X," when the word "types" is plural, should the object of the preposition "of" also be plural? Thank you.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Chicago, Illinois Tue, Aug 3, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I think it depends on whether you're talking about something that's countable—"There are two types of chairs in this house."—or something that's not countable—"There are two types of furniture in this house." [E-Mail Icon]I'll leave an e-mail icon here in case someone has a better idea.

QUESTION
Could you tell me which is better?
  1. Los Angeles has a higher number of family dwellings per capita than does any other large city.
  2. Los Angeles has higher numbers of family dwellings per capita than any other large city.
Thanks a lot!
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Somewhere, Pennsylvania Wed, Aug 4, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I would change it to "a greater number" and, for the sake of parallel form, I would keep the verb after the "than."
Los Angeles has a greater number of family dwellings per capital than does any other large city.
QUESTION
In this sentence,
Paint can explosion leaves man injured,
would paint can be hyphenated? We have gone back and forth on this, and would like to know. For the record, I don't think paint can should be hyphenated.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Asheville, North Carolina Thu, Aug 5, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Within the text of this story, we can avoid the problem by talking about the explosion of a paint can, but in the headline, we're stuck. I agree that hyphenating paint can is a cop-out; you can't do that. But the headline remains hard to read. Can you make the paint can's explosion possessive? Or "Man injured by/in paint can explosion"?

QUESTION
in these examples, wich would be grammatically correct? and could you explain why?
  1. Tom wrecked the car on accident.
  2. Tom wrecked the car by accident.
This is in hopes to settle a "bar room" argument. Thank you
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Glendale, Arizona Thu, Aug 5, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I don't know where "on accident" comes from. My kids used to use this phrase all the time. "It's not my fault. It happened 'on accident'!" I thought it was a regional expression, something they picked up in southern New England, but it crops up all over. "By accident" is certainly the more common, standard expression. The preposition "on" seems to have imperialist tendencies, creeping into places—"standing on line, waiting on the bus"—where "in" and "for" were doing their job quite nicely.

QUESTION
How do I handle these types of possessives?:
my employer's benefit's program
thank you
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Westport, Connecticut Thu, Aug 5, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I don't think that "benefits" needs to be a possessive in that construction. It's a "benefits program." You could change it to "program of benefits," if it still bothers you, but there's certainly nothing wrong with "my employer's benefits program [or package]."

QUESTION
My question is about whether singular sounding team names are actually singular. For example:
  1. The Orlando Magic are leading in the fourth quarter.
    or
  2. The Orlando Magic is leading in the fourth quarter.
The same example can be applied to the Miami Heat, Utah Jazz, etc... I believe that a team name can't be singular because a team is a group of individuals by nature. However I know somebody who claims to have a BA in English who disagrees, I think he's got BS, not a BA. Anyway thanks for your help, this is a great site you have.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Boston, Massachusetts Thu, Aug 5, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I don't know if your argument really helps: a team can certainly act as a singular entity. However, the question is whether the name of a team can act as a singular proper noun or not. I think for the sake of consistency, we have to use these team names as plurals. We cannot say, for example, that the Celtics (or plug in Patriots, Yankees, Redsox, Cardinals—any clearly plural name) has improved or is improving. We have to use plural verbs with those names ("have," "are"). And I do agree with you that when we use those oddly singular team names—Connecticut Pride, New York Liberty, Orlando Magic, Stanford Cardinal—the team is acting as a group of individuals and ought to carry a plural verb: The Orlando Magic have improved, are improving, etc. To make the team name act as a singular entity, I think you'd have to throw in a term like "The Orlando Magic team is improving, or "The New York Liberty organization has procured the services of. . ." Now I'll have to read the sports pages to see how they're handling this question.

QUESTION
Can the word "since" be used as a conjunction, for example, as a synonym for "because" (e.g., "Since I am an immigrant, I am scrupulous about my grammar.")? or may "since" only be used in the temporal sense as a preposition (e.g., "since this morning this grammar question has been nagging at me")?

Can the word "as" be used in like fashion (e.g., "As I am an immigrant, I am scrupulous about my grammar.")? or may "as" be used only as a preposition, as a synonym for "like" (e.g., "I'm dumb as a post.")?

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
New York, New York Thu, Aug 5, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Both "because" and "since" can be used to mean "for the reason that." You want to be careful, though, that "since" can't be misinterpreted with its "temporal" meaning ("since this morning"). In other words, if there's a chance that "since" can be misunderstood, use "because." The same is true of "as": don't use it to mean "because" where there is any chance it could be misunderstood in the temporal sense ("while"). Using "as" instead of "because" is apt to sound rather fussy and stilted anyway.

Authority: New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage HarperCollins: New York. 1994. p. 40. Cited with permission.


QUESTION
Whoa! Stop! Cease! Regarding agreement, your admonition to use the awkward, feminist, pc phrase "his or her" perpetuates a stylistic abomination. At least present the traditional (traditional, tried and true--with the exception of the last 30 miserable years, that is) use of "his" alone as an alternative for anyone who has his head on straight. When kids start writing grammar texts this is the result. Stop it!
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Villa Park, Illinois Thu, Aug 5, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
If your note refers to my treatment of this issue in the section on Pronouns, I think you're misreading my language. I state that too many his and her's can be annoying, and I don't recommend that particular solution when student writers are conscientiously trying to avoid sexist language. I recommend pluralizing whenever possible—or choosing one gender or the other and sticking with it consistently. In fact, I would rather my students use "their" as a singular gender-nonspecific pronoun. Great writers—Shakespeare, Austen, among them—have been using "their" as a substitute for "his" for centuries.

I applaud efforts to make the language less sexist—as long as such efforts don't make the language less elegant (which is why I don't like a constant use of "his and her" or "his or her" or, worse yet, "his/her.") Losing the traditional "his" for all singular pronoun situations, however, is a good idea, and I see nothing "pc," feminist, or childish about it.


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