Apple are or Apple is?

[Love]

Hmm, that's tricky. The army is probably "are" for me.

 

[CalBoy]

Hmm, that's tricky. The army is probably "are" for me.

How do you reconcile army and rice or sand?

What about faculty, staff, or team?

 

[Love]

How do you reconcile army and rice or sand?

What about faculty, staff, or team?

Rice and sand = is

Team, faculty, staff = are.

Perhaps it's a terrible double standard that I should work on. But, I maintain that American spellings look bad.

 

[42streetsdown]

Likewise, sometimes someone overseas will object to "I could care less", which is a common American idiom

It's not an idiom, it's a lack of understanding. I use the phrase, but i say "I couldn't care less." It's just like some people think "for all intensive purposes" is a thing, but it's really "for all intents and purposes." It all stems from bad communication.

 

[CalBoy]

Rice and sand = is

Team, faculty, staff = are.

Perhaps it's a terrible double standard that I should work on. But, I maintain that American spellings look bad.

Well this isn't spelling.

It seems that when people are involved you prefer to view the collective noun in the plural sense, but when it is inanimate objects, you view them in a singular sense.

What do you do, then, when the noun is armies, teams, faculties, or companies? Is there something beyond plural? Perhaps the elusive super-plural conjugation.

 

[42streetsdown]

it seems a clear cut universal rule doesn't exist. i love english

 

[Nermal]

I learned "Apple is" and was surprised to learn that the UK uses "Apple are". I'll need to find an NZ reference to see which is actually correct here!

 

[iJohnHenry]

I learned "Apple is" and was surprised to learn that the UK uses "Apple are". I'll need to find an NZ reference to see which is actually correct here!

ǝɹɐ ǝlddɐ

 

[Chundles]

I learned "Apple is" and was surprised to learn that the UK uses "Apple are". I'll need to find an NZ reference to see which is actually correct here!

Epple uz. Choice eh bro?

 

[roadbloc]

In the UK, it is 'Apple are...'

Trust me. I'm a published author.

 

[-aggie-]

The correct usage is “Apple be.” As in:

Apple be presenting at the WWDC, yo.

 

[Gregg2]

twenty - twelve sounds right (and so does 2011);
but, twenty - thirteen sounds too clunky (forced), IMO; and I'll call it two thousand and thirteen.

You wouldn't say: twenty - oh - nine; but you would say nineteen - oh - nine.

I don't know. I wasn't around in 1009.

 

[Nermal]

Epple uz. Choice eh bro?

Ugh. Thankfully I don't speak like that!