Sunday, August 19, 2007

There, Their, They're

They're saying their questions are over there.

Take the They're/Their/There quiz to see whether you use them correctly.

I got 100%, but I always grammar and spell check my e-mails because you never know when one of these errors will creep in.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, I got 100% too, phew! But what about that question which says 'ask an American'? I really couldn't see any alternative that might make sense in American English - anyone care to enlighten me?

whirdly said...

100%!
An American would say "IBM has increased their profits . . . "

Richard said...

I love the smell of a collective noun controversy in the morning.

Anonymous said...

Well how very intriguing! Thank you, Whirdly. I do enjoy it when I discover yet another example of how our great language has diverged.

In British English I'd say we'd go 50/50 with calling a corporation plural or singular - no real agreement there. If anything I favour the singular myself, but others may differ. However in either case the verb would have to agree, so I would say "The Council has published its report", or "The Council have published their report", but not "...has published their...", and surely, surely no English speaker would say "...have published its..."? Very interesting!