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Old 31st May 2003, 01:44
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"sorry if it seems pedantic, but should that not read

"none of them WAS injured " ?"


To put it simply, no.
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Old 31st May 2003, 01:56
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Sorry, GrantT but Jumbo Liar's right. "None" is a contraction of "not one" which is singular and thus takes "was" as opposed to the plural which would take "were".
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Old 31st May 2003, 02:17
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Carrying on with the english lesson now it has started.........Lardy I think you will find that although you are correct in what you stated the word WAS or WERE is with reference to"them" which is plural therefore correct answer is were.
I sh#t you not
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Old 31st May 2003, 02:43
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No, it's "was", as in "the crowd was..", "the chorus was..." etc. Sorry to be pedantic, but there it is!
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Old 31st May 2003, 03:21
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"Was" is used in the case of one person (singular) ie. "I was listening to the radio"

"Were" is used for several people (plural) ie. "They were listening to the radio"

So "None of them were injured" is correct.

Last edited by GrantT; 31st May 2003 at 04:04.
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Old 31st May 2003, 04:06
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This is absolutely pathetic. I'm not a native English speaker, but I can tell you for certain it should be "was" not "were". The person who said it should be "were" because of the word "them" should go take a grammar refresher course. Do you say "one of them were"? I hope not! "One of them was" is right, so is "none of them was".
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Old 31st May 2003, 04:23
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"Do you say "one of them were"? I hope not! "One of them was" is right

Well done, this is because you are referring to just one person so "was" is correct, in this context anyway.
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Old 31st May 2003, 04:26
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Fellow pedants, rivetted by this absorbing subject I consulted Hutchinson's Dictionary of English Usage and find that I need to eat a bit of humble pie (but not the whole slice): " "None".......in a plural context, both a plural verb: "None of my friends were there" and a singular verb: "None of my friends was there" can be used. In general, a plural verb sounds more natural and unaffected, and is to be preferred."
Pathetic? Not at all, unless you think that words are meaningless anyway. You're not the UK Education Secretary, are you?
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Old 31st May 2003, 05:09
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Sigmund:

Okay. I checked the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and it says "none" can be used in singular or plural construction. Nevertheless, when I said pathetic, I was mostly referring to the person who said it should be "were" because the subject was "them".

Anyway, in my mother tongue, we don't have to worry about plurals or singulars. It's so much easier.
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Old 31st May 2003, 05:30
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Ok.

Here in England we would say ''None of them were injured''

Over the pond there, you guys would say ''None of them was injured''.

Most people would take the view that the English version is correct, and call the other one an 'Americanisation'. Or should that be 'Americanization'?!

MR XxX
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Old 31st May 2003, 05:34
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Whoa hold on there MR you may be called "pathetic" for using the incorrect past tense.
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Old 31st May 2003, 05:54
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Oh give up you lot!!!

We start off talking about a serious incident and the majority of the thread is a load of arguing about banal grammatic trivia!

Obviously pilots' CRM courses have been wildly successful in preventing this kind of puerile gainsaying and the "I'm right, I must have the last word" mentality.
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Old 31st May 2003, 15:43
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Welcome to non-ATI, boys and girls! One of the moderators elsewhere must have thought this thread were suitable for this forum
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Old 31st May 2003, 19:26
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Gosh! Never been here before...

What a wierd place....!

Voice sort of echoes around, doesn't it?

Hallo!

.hallo..

..allo..

...lo...

....o...

Do you think anyone else from PPRuNe have ever been here?

Doesn't look like it!

But wait! There'sa sweet-paper over there!

And another!

They look like those things Draper sucks!

Lets follow them!

Careful not to fall in the grammatical chasm!

I wont!

You mean "I won't"

I mean "We won't"

aaaAAAArrrggggghhhhh!
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Old 1st Jun 2003, 05:14
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Is this the 5 minute argument, or the full half hour?

Was is correct


Whoa hold on there MR you may be called "pathetic" for using the incorrect past tense
Now would that be the imperfect, perfect or plu-perfect tense?
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Old 1st Jun 2003, 06:32
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Well! You two seem to have picked up the idea pretty quickly.

BOAC
Sweetie-paper picker-upper
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