6 ms·

I believe the title is grammatically correct.

• tlb 8y ago
  Garner's Modern English Usage recommends the plural form, and cites a 7:1 current usage ratio in favor of plural.
  • codenut 8y ago
    Thats interesting. I did not know about that. Can you post the URL of the source?
    • tlb 8y ago
      Sadly, it's not online that I know of. Here are pictures of the text: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5sa0m8l9u6211y4/2019-03-26%2019.21.53.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/5sa0m8l9u6211y4/2019-03-26%2019.21... https://www.dropbox.com/s/dwbh9i7a4dcx84g/2019-03-26%2019.22.08.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/dwbh9i7a4dcx84g/2019-03-26%2019.22... The book [https://www.amazon.com/Garners-Modern-English-Usage-Garner/dp/0190491485 https://www.amazon.com/Garners-Modern-English-Usage-Garner/d...] is worth owning.
      • codenut 8y ago
        This is good stuff. Thanks for sharing. I will consider reading this book.
      • dwringer 8y ago
        Although based on that book, with which I agree here, the plural seems unambiguously the preferred term for this article's context, I'm not convinced of the book's examples of incorrect use of the singular form. It seems like in the given examples, the word "bacteria" is treated as singular when referring to a specific strain of bacteria. It seems unwieldy in referring to one particular strain, IMHO, to say "the bacterium that causes <x>", since one typically gets infected by a vast quantity of the individual entities, not just one. Thus I think "the [strain of] bacteria that causes ..." [for one strain] sounds just as natural as "bacteria that cause <x> include <a>, <b>, <c> ..." [referring to multiple strains].