That would be “weren’t.”

My preferences as well!

Something that seems to me completely wrong is the treatment of a proper noun as plural. For instance, sometimes I see these combinations: ‘Microsoft are…’, ‘Sears are…’, ‘Dell are…’. This is just plain wrong, and it sounds horrible. If the writer insists on a plural verb, the correct form to use is: ‘Microsoft employees are…’ or ‘Dell executives are…’.

-DA

I must also protest a mispronunciation of quesadilla that does not include the “y” sound for the “ll”. You say, “Kay-seh-dee-ya”. And one can hardly claim that Americans stay true to Spanish pronunciation: ever hear anyone talk about “Cal-ee-for-nee-ah” or “la ree-ah-ta”– which for those of you who did not recognize them are the Spanish ways of saying “California” and “lariat.” We also change the spelling, such as canyon for cañon. In Spanish, a-e-i-o-u is pronounced ah (like in father)-ay-ee-oh-oo (and if your teacher is a native speaker he may add the line “el burro sabe más que tú” when reminding you, and this is not complimentary). Also, rr must be rolled on the tongue and not in the throat, ll sounds like y, and ñ sounds like ny in the Russian “nyet”.

Furthermore, I do not think that we can truly claim that any one pronunciation is THE American way to say something, since in nothing else is America’s melting pot as tangible (or should I say audible?) as in our speech. As a military brat, I have moved all over the U.S. and can tell you from experience that there are vast differences in the way that people speak BETWEEN and WITHIN communities. Is the plural of you ya’ll, youse, or you? Is it day-ta, data with the short a of mat, or data with the first syllable like in dot or father? Is it a foy-yuh, a foy-yay, or a foy-yer? I have heard all of the above in the US, and different pronunciations are more common in different places. If we’re going to nitpick, I should mention that all syllables which do no end with a consonent are considered open and should technically be long. But nobody says “day-tay”, “reef-eren-day”, or “medi-ay” for data, referenda, or media, so perhaps all of the rules of grammar are more fluid than we would like to think. There certainly isn’t a moratorium on beginning sentences with conjunctions anymore, although in practice, it is best to use them sparingly.

And while I am ranting, I really do WISH IT WASN’T necessary to point out that subject-verb agreement dictates “it wasn’t” and not “it weren’t” even when preceded by the words “I wish”. Leave the subjunctive to the Europeans– English has phased it out much in the same way that we seldom use different forms of a verb for first, second, and third person speach– although there are a few exceptions, such as the queer third-person-singular-only addition of -es to go.

I feel compelled to add that since language is constantly evolving, it is important to allow some flexibility for words that are “in transition” from the archaic forms and usages to what is au courant. Our forbears protested the addition of French words such as beef and pork to their Olde English, and struggled with how to use the new words– does this apply to the animal all the time, or only when it’s cooked? Such words are entirely commplace now, and no one would make the mistake of saying, “The beef in that field are eating the grass at a tremendous rate”. Or would their mistake be: “The beef … is …”?

For myself, I prefer octupii, the day-ta is, forums, graffitti as both singular and plural, and I most certainly could not live without the phrase “to boldly go …”. Perhaps one day some future linguist will read this page and laugh at us for quibbling over what he feels is a solidly decided subject. But it is unlikely he will judge us for our differences. I mean, students complain of the difficulty, but no one ever thinks to suggest that Chauncer’s spelling is just flat-out abhominably wrong, although my computer’s spell-checker has the gall to suggest that I should remove the h from abhominable!

From the American Heritage dictionary, the quote says that singular usage is frequent. The OED says the same, not that the plural use is INCORRECT.

dh