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Subject:Re: Is Contents Singular or Plural? From:"Sharon Burton-Hardin" <sharonburton -at- earthlink -dot- net> To:<sahrehold -at- winspc -dot- com> Date:Thu, 10 Feb 2000 08:00:14 -0800
I don't think so in this case. If he were referring to the table of
Contents, I would agree. But I think in this case, he is actually using the
contents as a plural noun. He is using it as the contents are a collection
of items resulting from the search/whatever happened.
At least to this native ear...
sharon
Sharon Burton-Hardin
President of the Inland Empire chapter of the STC
www.iestc.org
Anthrobytes Consulting
909-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Susan Ahrenhold <sahrehold -at- winspc -dot- com>
To: 'Sharon Burton-Hardin' <sharonburton -at- earthlink -dot- net>
Cc: <TECHWR-L -at- LISTS -dot- RAYCOMM -dot- COM>
Sent: Thursday, 10 February, 2000 8:12 AM
Subject: RE: Is Contents Singular or Plural?
|
| Contents is singular in this context. It is acting as a collective noun;
| other examples would be nouns like team, crowd, or sample. The point of a
| collective noun is that it is a group functioning as one object. A
| collective noun is an aggregate, and the actual number of people in the
| group is irrelevant.
|
| Collective nouns are singular.
|
|
|
