On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:46:56 -0700 (PDT), ¨£¨¬¨£andcarole¢À¢À posted:

On Mar 31, 2:43?am, Barbara Bailey wrote:
Oleg Lego wrote :



On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:21:16 -0000, Mark Brader posted:

"Datere" asks about:
A group of little girls *were playing in the park.
A group of little girls *was playing in the park.
...
The answer is that "were" is correct and "was" is wrong. ?Expressions
like "a group of..." and "a number of..." are almost always construed
as plural. ?Nouns referring to groups are construed as singular only
if you are thinking of the group as a single unit, which would be
very unusual for an expression like "a group of".

Well, whenever I think of a "group of" anything, I think of it as a
single unit, namely, a group.

Same here. "Group" is the noun, "of..." is an adjectival phrase modifying
it. In Datere's original sentences, "a group was playing..." ?or "girls
were playing.."

Nothing better to do besides being usenets spellchecker?

I just love it when the idiot brigade drops by with a poorly
punctuated non-sequitur.

--
WCdnE