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! 😛