4 ms·

It depends which country you're from. In North America we tend to refer to companies as singular, but this is not so common in the UK for example, where they're

It depends which country you're from. In North America we tend to refer to companies as singular, but this is not so common in the UK for example, where they're usually referred to as plural.

esrauch 15y ago
Despite the title feeling weird when I read it, it is actually pretty common to refer to companies as "they" in the US (see other comments in this very thread!) Which is really crazy; you end up with sentences like "Apple is smart; they are getting a huge competitive edge by doing this" where you refer to the company as singular and plural in the same sentence.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  "They" can be singular or plural. It can easily refer to a single entity that is gender ambiguous (like a company, team, etc)
  - chimeracoder 15y ago
    People say that, but it is grammatically incorrect.
    - neild 15y ago
      A few examples of the singular "they", courtesy of Wikipedia: Eche of theym sholde ... make theymselfe redy. — Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon (c. 1489) Arise; one knocks. / ... / Hark, how they knock! — Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595) 'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear the speech. — Shakespeare, Hamlet I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly. — Austen, Mansfield Park (1814) That's always your way, Maim—always sailing in to help somebody before they're hurt. — Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) Caesar: "No, Cleopatra. No man goes to battle to be killed." / Cleopatra: "But they do get killed". — Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra (1901) The singular "they" has extensive precedent. Some proscriptive grammarians feel that it should be disallowed, but given the usefulness of a neutral pronoun and the venerable history of the usage, I think they may be safely ignored.
      - esrauch 15y ago
        I think that is a little bit misleading; I am fairly certain that there are plenty of examples of nonstandard usage in works by any of those authors that you would absolutely not accept as correct. Particularly Shakespeare, who is well known for using common parlance in his works rather than proper English.
    - redthrowaway 15y ago
      "Did you talk to the person from the cable company?" "Yes, they told me to file a complaint with corporate." I'm not sure how that's grammatically incorrect.
      - esrauch 15y ago
        That actually is grammatically incorrect in English even though it is used often in common parlance; they is supposed to only be plural. The correct usage would be "he or she" if you don't know the gender of someone; the reason why "they" is used so commonly for singular is because of how unwieldy it is to say "So about your friend; does he or she bring his or her ipod on his or her way to work?" It's actually a huge flaw in English, and there has been tons of proposals of gender-indifferent singular pronouns like "xe". On the other hand, "you" used to only be plural and apply if you were talking to a group of people ("thee" was singular) and obviously the correct term today is you for both singular and plural. It's easily possible that within the next 50 years it will be commonly accepted to use "they" as a singular pronoun in formal communication, but its not today. You would almost certainly be marked down for using it in that manner on the SAT or GRE for example.
- jbrennan 15y ago
  Very true. I do the exact same thing. Language is a beautiful thing.
nostromo 15y ago
Interesting to note, thanks. Out of curiosity, when I read the BBC I see Apple written as singular -- any thoughts on why? (Ex: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8435767.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8435767.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4625262.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4625262.stm)
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  That seems to be the way it's written everywhere in the british news. Using a company's name as plural doesn't appear to be too common even over there; I didn't come across any cases on three different sites.
- softbuilder 15y ago
  I struggled to understand this a few years back. This wikipedia article helped clarify things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences#Nouns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_di...
redthrowaway 15y ago
Taking Apple as an example, a quick search of British sites yielded the following: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/inside-travel-apple-launches-its-new-travel-workshops-2314376.html http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/inside-t... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14196153 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14196153 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14181329 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14181329 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/18/apple-htc-android-patent-infringement?INTCMP=SRCH http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/18/apple-htc-a... ...all of which use Apple as singular. In fact, I didn't come across any article that used Apple as plural.

It depends which country you're from. In North America we tend to refer to companies as singular, but this is not so common in the UK for example, where they're usually referred to as plural.

esrauch 15y ago

Despite the title feeling weird when I read it, it is actually pretty common to refer to companies as "they" in the US (see other comments in this very thread!) Which is really crazy; you end up with sentences like "Apple is smart; they are getting a huge competitive edge by doing this" where you refer to the company as singular and plural in the same sentence.

redthrowaway 15y ago
"They" can be singular or plural. It can easily refer to a single entity that is gender ambiguous (like a company, team, etc)
- chimeracoder 15y ago
  People say that, but it is grammatically incorrect.
  - neild 15y ago
    A few examples of the singular "they", courtesy of Wikipedia: Eche of theym sholde ... make theymselfe redy. — Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon (c. 1489) Arise; one knocks. / ... / Hark, how they knock! — Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595) 'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear the speech. — Shakespeare, Hamlet I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly. — Austen, Mansfield Park (1814) That's always your way, Maim—always sailing in to help somebody before they're hurt. — Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) Caesar: "No, Cleopatra. No man goes to battle to be killed." / Cleopatra: "But they do get killed". — Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra (1901) The singular "they" has extensive precedent. Some proscriptive grammarians feel that it should be disallowed, but given the usefulness of a neutral pronoun and the venerable history of the usage, I think they may be safely ignored.
    - esrauch 15y ago
      I think that is a little bit misleading; I am fairly certain that there are plenty of examples of nonstandard usage in works by any of those authors that you would absolutely not accept as correct. Particularly Shakespeare, who is well known for using common parlance in his works rather than proper English.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    "Did you talk to the person from the cable company?" "Yes, they told me to file a complaint with corporate." I'm not sure how that's grammatically incorrect.
    - esrauch 15y ago
      That actually is grammatically incorrect in English even though it is used often in common parlance; they is supposed to only be plural. The correct usage would be "he or she" if you don't know the gender of someone; the reason why "they" is used so commonly for singular is because of how unwieldy it is to say "So about your friend; does he or she bring his or her ipod on his or her way to work?" It's actually a huge flaw in English, and there has been tons of proposals of gender-indifferent singular pronouns like "xe". On the other hand, "you" used to only be plural and apply if you were talking to a group of people ("thee" was singular) and obviously the correct term today is you for both singular and plural. It's easily possible that within the next 50 years it will be commonly accepted to use "they" as a singular pronoun in formal communication, but its not today. You would almost certainly be marked down for using it in that manner on the SAT or GRE for example.
jbrennan 15y ago
Very true. I do the exact same thing. Language is a beautiful thing.

nostromo 15y ago

Interesting to note, thanks. Out of curiosity, when I read the BBC I see Apple written as singular -- any thoughts on why? (Ex: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8435767.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8435767.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4625262.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4625262.stm)

redthrowaway 15y ago
That seems to be the way it's written everywhere in the british news. Using a company's name as plural doesn't appear to be too common even over there; I didn't come across any cases on three different sites.
softbuilder 15y ago
I struggled to understand this a few years back. This wikipedia article helped clarify things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences#Nouns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_di...

redthrowaway 15y ago

Taking Apple as an example, a quick search of British sites yielded the following: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/inside-travel-apple-launches-its-new-travel-workshops-2314376.html http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/inside-t... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14196153 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14196153 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14181329 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14181329 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/18/apple-htc-android-patent-infringement?INTCMP=SRCH http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/18/apple-htc-a... ...all of which use Apple as singular. In fact, I didn't come across any article that used Apple as plural.