A Question on English Grammar

[ajaxfetish]

To take it back to the country question, the United States is generally looked upon as a single entity these days, in spite of its original collective nature, but what about other nations with plural names, such as The Bahamas. Would you choose to refer to The Bahamas as 'it' or 'they'? I'm not sure the country thing is set in stone enough to say a country will always be singular.

Ajax

[sapi]

In english it is.

imho, all countries should be referred to in the singular

[English assassin]

This is one of those grammar maven questions where the rule is there is no rule. Just be consistent in your own usage. A company is a singular entity, and so would be an "it", but in fact so long as you are internally consistent you are correct. Even in legal drafting no one cares. After all, are you really goign to find out if a business is a company (singular) or a partnership (technically plural in England, singular IIRC in scotland)? Duke Malcolm has probably got the strict grammar right, but in practice that is not English as she is spoke.

I would agree that it sounds odd to refer to a country as opposed to its inhabitants in the plural though.

Getting its and it's wrong, on the other hand, really annoys me.

[sapi]

lol at the its and it's issue - its it's a pain, isn't it?

I would argue that countries = singular though, and languages where some are not (eg. french) make this very clear.

[naut]

Its and it's is the most annoying due to the semi-reversal of other English laws of diction and grammar.

[sapi]

it's not a reversal; it just obeys one law (conjunctions) before another (plurals)