"shazzbat" wrote
"Tom Gardner"wrote
David Hill wrote:
Around £10,000 were stolen from a house
Or should it be
Around £10,000 was stolen from a house.
If you regard the money as individual notes then they "were" stolen but
if you regard it as a single unit of money then it "was" stolen.
It's niggling me.
IMNSHO the sentence is referring to a single unit,
therefore "was" is correct. Besides, it "sounds"
more elegant. If, OTOH, you had written "£10,000
worth of notes" then "were" would be correct.
GrammAr and spulling are they're to help people communicate
and understand each other Beyond that it is a question of
style and elegance.
And no, I'm not prepared to defend that statement.
You don't need to. It is self-evident.
While we are on this thread when did it become "Bored of this...." instead
of "bored with this....". I've even seen it written in adverts lately.
Now for a discussion, should it be "Can I help you" or "May I help you" when
you answer the phone etc? :-)
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK