Michael Everson <everson@evertype.com> wrote:
> I have written an open letter to the Minister for Finance, Charlie
> McCreevy, about the serious problem we have in Ireland, namely, that
> the false plural without -s is used with the words "euro" and "cent"
> in Ireland and that this bad grammar is given to us all hundreds of
> times of day on television every day.
One can only wonder if "They" will listen.
Certainly, if the French are allowed "centimes" (which I knew about) and
the Greeks are allowed "lepta" (which I didn't), it would make sense for
English speakers to conduct business in euros and cents.
Kevin Bracey <kevin.bracey@pace.co.uk> responded:
> I see the EU have tied themselves up in knots over this.
This use of a plural verb with a grammatically singular noun that
represents a plural entity, as Kevin demonstrated ("the EU have"), is
standard British usage, and makes some sense if you think about it; but
Americans would never use this construction, and many would regard it as
a grammatical error.
The comparison between this example and the euro/euros debate is left as
an exercise for the reader.
-Doug Ewell
Fullerton, California
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