A Question on English Grammar

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Actually a country can be reffered to as "She." A company could be they when reffering to an action.

"BA bought all our shares, they own us now."

It depends on whether you view the company as an entity in and of itself, or a collection of people.

I suppose The United States could be "they" as well, it depends on whether you concieve of it as independant states or as one state.

So in reality the correct pronoun depends on the intent and the perception of the subject.

This is one of the weird things about English, because the language has been raped so many times it doesn't have very consistant rules. We've lost five pronouns to begin with.

[TevashSzat]

Wigferth, the United States is usually used as being singular in modern cases and since it is a proper name, one doesn't have to take the meaning literally of a group of states that are united, but rather regards it as a single entity.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I'm aware of that, I was speaking from a purely gramatical point of view. Obviously most people view the US as a single state.

I thought that was implicit in my post, hence the emphasis on could.

[dacdac]

But this just doesn't sound right.
The U.S. are number 1 on earth, and they are supreme.
BUT, this does
The United States are number 1 on earth, and they are supreme.
in the first sentence, arent i stating that a singular noun is supreme with the singular noun being replaced with a plural noun.
In the second, im using a plural noun that has a singular connotation, and the plural form of is and the plural form of it of a previously stated plural noun.
Im confused. English sucks. I hate it. It has 50,000 rules each with 10,000 exceptions to it. Thats why i prefer a mix of slang, ebonics and gangsta. it up the hizzle. fo sho.

[sapi]

@dacdac - i would never think of using either example, as they're gramatically horrible

Something along the lines of 'The US is one of the most powerful countries on earth and it is often regarded as supreme' gets the point across much better

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I believe this usage differs somewhat between US and correct English, in that we tend to use the singular form for collective nouns, whereas they use plural.

US English-The mob! They are coming!

English-The mob! It is coming!

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

That's because we're a maonarchy with no individual identity BKS.

[sapi]

I believe this usage differs somewhat between US and correct English, in that we tend to use the singular form for collective nouns, whereas they use plural.

US English-The mob! They are coming!

English-The mob! It is coming!

The us version just sounds wrong - you don't say (well, at least here) "help! The mob are coming!"

@xdeathfire - i agree