According to Erika Meltze´rs grammar book, collective nouns should be treated as SINGULAR nouns. They should be reffered to with (it/its). I was wondering why the word PEOPLE is not a collective noun, and why it should be treated by their. I got a review question wrong because it said:
People who seek out extreme sports such as skydiving and mountain climbing often do so because he or she feels compelled to explore the limits of their endurance.
I switched the (their) for his or her but the correct answer was switching the (his or her) for they.
I am confused.
Born in Spain in 1881, Pablo Picasso will become one of the most celebrated and revolutionary paintors of the twentieth century because of his invention of the cubist style.
I changed the will become to became. The answer says it should be would become. I dont see how became is wrong!!!
That one’s just dumb, I agree with you. “Became” is correct – simple past. “Would become” is also correct, if you’re speaking from the past and projecting to the future (as in, “I didn’t know back then that I would become so famous.”)
Is that one an open-ended question?? I find it hard to believe that there would be two correct multiple choice answers, unless there is some context around the sentence that we’re not getting.
Oh okay, I got the “people/persons” thing. Any more of those exceptions I need to know?
It was not a multiple choice question. It was just one of those chapter reviews so I guess we could be right
I guess just make sure you’re clear on what counts as a collective noun? Irregular plurals like “people” and, say, “children” may look like collective nouns because they don’t have the S at the end, but they don’t act like “group,” for example, which IS one.
Collective nouns are a bit tricky, not least because British and American standard usage differs in important ways. Really, the College Board shouldn’t be messing with that sort of thing.
(Of course, as a linguist I think much of the entire concept underlying the SAT’s and ACT’s grammar testing is wrongheaded, but that would lead to a whole different sort of discussion.)
