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cubefox 4 days ago

(Minor grammar note: "OpenAI are" -- it should say "OpenAI is" -- because "OpenAI" is a name and therefore singular.)

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simonw 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Apparently this is a British vs American English thing. I've decided to stay stubbornly British on this one.

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Esophagus4 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Collective nouns!

They vary between British and American English. In this case, either would acceptable depending on your dialect.

Also very noticeable with sports teams.

American: “Team Spain is going to the final.”

British: “Team Spain are going to the final.”

https://editorsmanual.com/articles/collective-nouns-singular...

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cubefox 3 days ago | parent [-]

I thought this was the same in all languages (my reference was German) because names are singular terms, even in British English, but apparently there are special rules.

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Esophagus4 3 days ago | parent [-]

Yeah, English is… a mess.

Blame it on a messy divorce a few hundred years ago :)

	▲	cubefox 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		That would make sense if before that divorce, the British didn't use singular terms in plural constructions. Otherwise it must have to do with something else. It doesn't make much sense to me. For example, consider: The traffic jam are expanding. The forest are growing. That's just like the OpenAI case.