This is a direct quote from the intermediate literacy test my class is taking at this very moment.

" Tick which three American foods does the 'Let Us Cook' service sell as a takeaway."

Is it just me or do the words I've indicated look ungrammatical to everyone?

It certainly looks odd to me. I'd have said "Tick which three American foods the 'Let Us Cook' service sells as a takeaway."

BTW, Americans, I think you'd use "check" instead of "tick".

Yes, we'd use "check," but I think most of us would understand it either way. And "foods" doesn't agree in number with "does," so my prescriptivism is ticked.

" Tick which three American foods does the 'Let Us Cook' service sell as a takeaway."

The weirdness is the does. Why use the emphatic mood of the verb sell? Also, foods herre is the object, not the subject of the verb sell. Does "the 'Let Us Cook' service" take a singular or plural verb?

I would've written: "Indicate which three American foods the 'Let Us Cook' service sells to go."

I thought that in UK English collectives take a plural. as in, "The team are going to Bournemouth," thus my thinking.

Can't say I'd know what the sentence meant. As for "tick," we sure don't use it in the midwest, though I'd know what it means because of this board. We also would not say "takeaway," but instead would say "to go."

These minute differences are odd, aren't they?

The problem, as I see it, is that halfway through writing it he author has decided to switch it from an instruction

Tick which three foods the service sells as a takeaway.

to a question

Which three foods does the service sell as a takeaway?

It's a classic case of forgetting how you started a sentence by the time you finish it.

---------------------------------------------

Geoff, British English allows both singular and plural verbs with collectives depending on whether you view the collective as a whole (singular) entity or as a group of separate (and hence plural) individuals.

So "the team is doing well at the moment" and "the team are doing well at the moment" are both acceptable but with a shift of emphasis.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

quote:

It's a classic case of forgetting how you started a sentence by the time you finish it.

Yes, I'm sure you're right, Bob. Not really forgiveable under the circumstances, though.

quote:

Does "the 'Let Us Cook' service" take a singular or plural verb?

As Bob says, in British English collective nouns can take either. In this example, though, it would be singular, as we are looking at the service as a whole, not the individual employees or other constituents.

quote:

So "the team is doing well at the moment" and "the team are doing well at the moment" are both acceptable but with a shift of emphasis.

Aha! I knew I should have been British! That's just how I think, thus keeping our editors and proofreaders busy. For example, arnie and Bob, would it be wrong for you to write: "The faculty are meeting to review the curriculum."? Or would you have to say the "faculty is" or the "faculty members" are? I'd have to say the latter. Even the "faculty is" likely wouldn't work because, as I am told, the faculty doesn't meet...the faculty members do. Similarly, the committee doesn't meet, its members do. And so on. I just think differently.

Kalleh, it would be quite correct to use "are meeting" in those circumstances. As you say, it's the faculty members who are meeting.

Sometimes, particularly in newspaper sports reports, I think journalists go too far and use a plural verb where I'd have used a singular one. For example, they might say "Manchester United F.C. are a large club" where I'd say "... is a large club". I suspect they have decided as a matter of local style to always use plural verbs with such collective nouns.