Re: (s)

["Huber, Mike" <mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM>]

The (s) construction is ungramatical. Not bad, just not within the rules
of grammar. It has (intentionaly) no number, thus neither "is" nor "are"
agrees with it. The answer is: no sentence that uses the (s)
construction is correct under the rules of English. Both

        The bottle(s) is made of glass.

and

        The bottle(s) are made of glass.

are wrong. The second seems less wrong to me, but both are outside of
the box.

In BNF, one of the more precise and frequently approximated dialects of
geek, there is a grammar that allows such constructions:

        The bottle[s] [is|are] made of glass.

In practice, I would tend to go with

        The bottles are made of glass.

and not worry too much about the possibility of a single bottle. Maybe
add a sentence to cover the possibility if it's important.

Mike Huber
mike -dot- huber -at- software -dot- rockwell -dot- com

>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Gaylon Cox [SMTP:gcox -at- PDXINC -dot- COM]
>Sent:  Monday, September 22, 1997 11:19 AM
>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject:       (s)
>
>-- [ From: Gaylon Cox * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --
>
>What is the appropriate verb (is/are) to use after a noun such as:
>The bottle(s) (is/are????) made of glass.
>

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