Thursday, April 28, 2005

A conundrum

"It's the things that Westfield do"

Shouldn't that be "it's the things that Westfield does"?

Westfield is a singular noun, and should definitely agree with the verb of which it is the subject, i.e. Westfield does, not Westfield do. Some might object that"Westfield" it is a collective noun. I doubt that , but even if it was, other collective nouns wouldn't work, "rice" for example.

So you have "it's the things that rice does that makes it a healthy food" and not "its the things that rice do that makes it a healthy food"

Any thoughts?

1 comment:

Neil said...

don't they mean "its the things that the management of the various Westfields do" that make you just want to shop and shop? In which case, it should be Westfields