Board 8 > Got a grammar problem, help me out

(+) Yeah! (+)

So the yearbook quote for my class has to be from a movie.

Mine is "the heroes [my school] deserves"

But I feel like it should be "deserve", not "deserves". But neither of them look/sound right. I lost sleep over this yesterday. Help.
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Leaning deserves since that's what I wrote but baaahhh
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"My school" is singular, so it's "deserves." You think it looks wrong because you think of "my school" as plural because it really refers to the students of the school, who are plural, but even in that context the school is still a singular group. It's definitely "deserves."
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i dont know
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British grammar is weird because words that are singular but refer to a unit of multiple things can use plural verbs

I'd say "deserves" there myself but yeah
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Dictionary.com says

Generally, however, in American English, collective nouns take singular verbs. In British English, collective nouns are more often treated as plurals that take plural verbs.

LOL English
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Gonna bite the bullet and go with deserves then
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Definitely deserves. Say it out loud.

"The heroes Central High deserve" sounds plain weird.
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But that's my problem, deserves does too a bit because of the two plurals
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I have a grammar problem. Help me out.

There you go.
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Swap in the pronoun and judge.

The heroes we deserve vs The heroes we deserves
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"U2 suck"
- British

"U2 sucks"
- American
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Make all the grammar bad intentionally, so if you mess up accidentally, it seems like it was on purpose.
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LeonhartFour posted...

British grammar is weird because words that are singular but refer to a unit of multiple things can use plural verbs

I'd say "deserves" there myself but yeah

this, if you're british then own your britishness. sounds right to you for a reason.
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It should be "deserves."
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XIII_rocks posted...

But that's my problem, deserves does too a bit because of the two plurals

There aren't two plurals. There's one plural and it's not the subject.
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Steiner posted...

"U2 suck"
- British

"U2 sucks"
- American

Really? That's just weird sounding. There are only a few bands where I might use that conjugation, like The Offspring or anything ending in S. (Note: The Offspring do not suck.)
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If you're british use "deserve" cuz you make everything plural for no reason anyways
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Subject / verb agreement. What is the subject?
School.
School deserves
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azuarc posted...

Steiner posted...

"U2 suck"
- British

"U2 sucks"
- American

Really? That's just weird sounding. There are only a few bands where I might use that conjugation, like The Offspring or anything ending in S. (Note: The Offspring do not suck.)

i'm not sure which bit you mean sounds 'weird' but yes, it is weird sounding to me when you guys use the american english, fortunately i looked up the difference on wikipedia like 13 years ago and now i understand when you guys are wrong
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England are weird
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I would say U2 sucks.
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azuarc posted...

Definitely deserves. Say it out loud.

"The heroes Central High deserve" sounds plain weird.

"They are the heroes Central High deserve"
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Anagram posted...

I would say U2 sucks.

and i would say "i agree"
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Steiner posted...

i'm not sure which bit you mean sounds 'weird' but

The part where you use a plural verb for a singular entity. There are a few times where I can see it being ambiguous...

"This pack of pencils need sharpening."
"The flock fly south for the winter."

It sounds wrong to me, and by regional standards, is wrong, but at least it's defensible. Pack and flock are words that clearly contain smaller parts, and it's the parts we're referencing. We sharpen the pencils, not the pack. The flock can't fly south without the individual birds flying south.

But in the case of "U2 suck," that doesn't make any sense because you aren't specifically saying Bono and The Edge are bad. That might also be true, but it's not the message. You're saying the unit of the four musicians together -- and the music they produce -- is bad. U2, the brand, is singular. Would you do the same thing if there were a band named after its frontman? Ozzy Osbourne suck?
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If the school is in reference to the student body, then you may be thinking of it in the plural sense and that's why deserve sounds right.

Ex. The heroes we all deserve.

However, one easy way to test it is to rearrange the sentence.

[My school] deserves heroes.
[My school] deserve heroes.

Definitely go with deserves.
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Both are fine.

In British English, a group is considered plural, and in American English, a group is considered singular as others have pointed out. So you can go with "deserve" in British English. HOWEVER, a school can also be a singular place, not just a group of people. So you can also use "deserves" if you use school in that way.
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China don't care
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I always thought a group being considered singular makes more sense, because you can also have more than one group.

If you treat both "group" and "groups" as plural, then you run into a situation like

The group deserve cake
The groups deserve cake

Which makes the first one just sound wrong. "Group" is treated as a single entity because you can further pluralize it.

Like, you can't pluralize "cakes." It's already pluralized.

You CAN pluralize "group."
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Or, for another example

"Central High" refers to a plural group of people, yes. But replace "Central High" with "school." It still refers to a plural group of people, but would you say

"Those school"
or
"That school"

Because if it's the latter, then "That school deserve cake" doesn't make sense.

So it's basically

"The heroes Central High deserves"
"The heroes that school deserves"

or

"The heroes Central High deserve"
"The heroes those school deserve"
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