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stuffs88
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Sentence Correction: 18 Nov 2013, 08:39
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Burglaries- How is this a singular collective noun?
Burglaries has occurred.

I am very tempted to use "have" occurred!
Unless, somebody can shine some light on this, I will have to memorize this! Do you guys have/know any websites or documents on Singular collective nouns?

Thanks in advance.
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[Responding to a PM]
Hi stuffs88,

As i notice that this is your first post , so i would welcome you to the forum.
Have you encountered this situation mentioned above in any question? If yes, please mention the question over here ( other users may find it useful). If that question is already posted then i would request you to mention this point over there.
As far as my knowledge goes, burglaries is the plural of burglary and in any normal context burglaries should take plural form of verb. However there are constructions in which singular is prefered.
ex: Bread and butter is my staple breakfast. here bread and butter is taken as a singular entity.

Hope this helps.
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Sentence Correction: 19 Nov 2013, 02:09
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Hi,

Thank you for the response. If you open page number 44 on Manhattan- Sentence Correction book and observe question number 6 and the corrected answer in page number 45, you might get the point am talking about.

The recent string of burglaries, in addition to poor building maintenance, (has inspired) the outspoken
resident to call a tenants meeting. [String is used here as a singular collective noun. Omit the additive
phrase beginning with in addition to.]

If you look for the meaning or the subject verb alignment, the subject has to be Burglaries- isn't it? How can "The string" inspire? It should be burglaries that inspire the outspoken.

Totally off here.
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Hi Stuffs88,

String of burglaries, consider a string, A string is a single piece of entity. so it takes a singular entity. such as bread n better.
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Thanks Waterflowsup! Will get back with more questions :)
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stuffs88
Hi,

Thank you for the response. If you open page number 44 on Manhattan- Sentence Correction book and observe question number 6 and the corrected answer in page number 45, you might get the point am talking about.

The recent string of burglaries, in addition to poor building maintenance, (has inspired) the outspoken
resident to call a tenants meeting. [String is used here as a singular collective noun. Omit the additive
phrase beginning with in addition to.]

If you look for the meaning or the subject verb alignment, the subject has to be Burglaries- isn't it? How can "The string" inspire? It should be burglaries that inspire the outspoken.

Totally off here.

Actually, the main subject here is the string. 'of burglaries' is a prepositional phrase that tells us about the string. The string of what? Of Burglaries.
Hence you use 'has'.

Similarly,
The number of stray dogs is increasing.
We use 'is' here which is in agreement with 'number', not dogs.
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Thank You.

However, if you look at this sentence-

The proliferation of computer games designed to involve many players at once were first
developed before the widespread availability of high-speed internet connections.

Were stands to be the correct usage. But going by the meaning of it, The Proliferation cannot be the subject and I, in similar way thought The string does not makes sense with burglaries.

But, The string of burglaries is taken as the collective term, not The proliferation of computer games.
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stuffs88
Thank You.

However, if you look at this sentence-

The proliferation of computer games designed to involve many players at once were first
developed before the widespread availability of high-speed internet connections.

Were stands to be the correct usage. But going by the meaning of it, The Proliferation cannot be the subject and I, in similar way thought The string does not makes sense with burglaries.

But, The string of burglaries is taken as the collective term, not The proliferation of computer games.

The given sentence is not correct and makes no sense at all.

The subject is the 'proliferation' (which means rapid growth) but the sentence does not talk about it at all.
'were first developed ...' is about the computer games.

If you retain proliferation as the subject, you need to completely change the sentence. e.g.
The proliferation of computer games designed to involve many players at once was a result of widespread availability of high-speed internet connections.

or you may want to change the subject e.g.
The computer games designed to involve many players at once were first developed before the widespread availability of high-speed internet connections.
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Thank you again. I would pick your advice on changing the structure of the sentence as it follows all the rules.

I have another question and hope I can proceed in the same post.

Weeks is or are- the correct usage? I have seen them both in popular e-newspapers.
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KarishmaB
Quote:
or you may want to change the subject e.g.
The computer games designed to involve many players at once were first developed before the widespread availability of high-speed internet connections.

Here isn't "first developed before" wordy ? Would "developed before" be more precise and correct?
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Jaychoudhary
KarishmaB
Quote:
or you may want to change the subject e.g.
The computer games designed to involve many players at once were first developed before the widespread availability of high-speed internet connections.

Here isn't "first developed before" wordy ? Would "developed before" be more precise and correct?

Jaychoudhary


"First" plays a role in the meaning of the sentence. Multi player games are developed regularly. Even today they are developed.

Multi player games were developed before the widespread availability of high speed internet. - means they were developed before high speed internet and now they are not developed.
Multi player games were first developed before the widespread availability of high speed internet. - means that the first games developed were developed before high speed internet became available