"Spider" wrote
Bob Hobden wrote:
"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? :-)
Regarding the latter, it should be "can I help you?" or even "How can I
help you?" "May" is permissive and your caller is already allowing you to
help them, so it only remains to satisfy *if* you can help them.
Occasionally, when wishing to help someone but not cause offence, I might
say "May I help you?" or "Will you let me help you with ..". In that
instance, I have already decided that I *can* help, but wish to be allowed
to help.
But "can I help you?" is a question the caller cannot answer because they
don't know if the person can or cannot.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK