2012 Poll

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

That is ridiculous. If I beat up an old lady and stole her purse, would it be incorrect for you to say, "Rupert beats up old ladies and steal their purses."?

I guess technically it shouldn't be plural if I only beat up one old lady and stole her purse. However, I would still consider the statment correct and I don't think too many would argue the semantics. I think people would get the point.

I dunno -- do you make a habit of it, or did you do it once?

That's the difference between singular and plural nouns and verbs. The former means it happened once, the latter means it happened over and over.

So you tell me, did you beat up an old lady and steal her purse, or do you beat up old ladies and steal their purses?

Has Holder sued a state for its law or has Holder sued states for their laws?

You may think it's a minor thing and that "people would get the point," but the only point I get so far is that you're acting hysterical and feel the need to make something sound worse than it is to try to score a point. I get it. It's what you guys do, which is why I saw it coming earlier this afternoon and was shock, unsurprisingly right.

Ponderous.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by brianwspencer

I dunno -- do you make a habit of it, or did you do it once?

That's the difference between singular and plural nouns and verbs. The former means it happened once, the latter means it happened over and over.

So you tell me, did you beat up an old lady and steal her purse, or do you beat up old ladies and steal their purses?

Has Holder sued a state for its law or has Holder sued states for their laws?

You may think it's a minor thing and that "people would get the point," but the only point I get so far is that you're acting hysterical and feel the need to make something sound worse than it is to try to score a point. I get it. It's what you guys do, which is why I saw it coming earlier this afternoon and was shock, unsurprisingly right.

Holder couldn't do it more than once. Only one state has passed such a law so far. I think it is correct to use the plural form if something is policy. For example, let's say a police department has a policy of arresting prositiutes but not the customers. Now let's say they implement a new policy where they are arresting the "Johns" too. Let's say that they just implemented this policy and have arrested one "John" so far. Would it be incorrect to say that this police department arrests "people" for soliciting prostitutes? Of course that would be a correct statement. Just because they've only arrested one person so far, that doesn't make it incorrect to use "people" plural. Their policy is to arrest "people" for soliciting prostitutes. It is a correct statement to say they arrest "people" for soliciting prosititutes just like it is a correct statement to say Holder sues "states" that try to enforce immigration laws. It's irrelevant that it has only happened once. The policy is in place.

By the way, I have never been convicted of beating up an old lady and stealing her purse. (I have a good lawyer). That was a joke.