[OT] Re: singular they (was: RFS(2): autoreply - A safe, rate-limited auto-responder)

[Philipp Meier <meier@fnogol.de>]

Am Dienstag, den 01.02.2005, 18:05 +0800 schrieb Cameron Patrick:
> Frank Küster wrote:
> 
> > Just in case anybody is also reading -project...
> > 
> > 
> > Blars Blarson <blarson@blars.org> wrote:
> > 
> > > I do think that it should be objectivly compared with vacation before
> > > Debian decides to add it to to their archives.
> >                                  ^^^^^
> 
> In some dialects in English (including the one spoken in England, I
> believe) a group like "Debian" is plural, not singular.

I learned in school that if your refer to a group as whole then it's
singular:

"The band is playing a song."

If you refer to the group if individuals, then you can use the plural:

"The band are drunk."

However, our teacher told us that the plural version is rather unusual.
Please take this information with care, because I'm not a native
speaker. 

-billy.
-- 
A: Because it breaks the logical sequence of discussion
Q: Why is top posting bad?