Thursday, 12 October 2023

A Question Of Grammar....


I think it should be 'IS not permitted'. What say you, Reader?

11 comments:

Frank said...

I is agreeing with you. There are a lot of examples of this kind of bad grammar. ;-)

DAD said...

Since a singular person cannot wear more than one ski mask, or more than one hooddy, etc (unless he/she/it is an idiot) it would appear that the plurality of the items mentioned in the notice makes it bunkum.

If one wore only one of each, or any, of the items that are banned, then one can claim that one is obeying the command.

"No", Mr Security, "I am not wearing ski masks; I am wearing a singular ski mask which is not banned by your notice".

I had fun with a Stallholder at a market who had a notice, "Everything here £1". I gave him a £1 and started to collect the items together. He seemed slightly miffed at my action, I do not know why.

Anonymous said...

Although I'm not formally trained (thank you, English school system); are we not dealing with the present participle here, which is singular? Therefore "is" would be the correct ${fancy word for bit that come next}...

And a ski mask is verboten, while a burka plus a facemask is OK? All right then...

The Meissen Bison said...

Yes - the subject is the verbal noun "Wearing" which is singular and requires the third person singular verb "is".

Anonymous said...

No, no, no ... you don't understand.

You aren't allowed to wear a ski mask 'under' your helmet whilst wearing a hoodie is all. Each is allowed on their own (and if you belong to a terrorist ... oops, I mean 'religious' persuasion that demands it).

Remember, the (only) people most likely to need such a sign are the very people wearing masks and face-shields ... on their own in their own cars (and are currently queuing up for their 27th boosters).

I think we've reached the point of peak-stupidity. the human race is now, officially, too stupid to survive!

Agammamon said...

Unless they're prohibiting wearing of all of them at the same time, its a list of singular items - 'is'.

Mark in Mayenne said...

Should be "or" not "and" (who wears all of those?) In which case "is" would be correct.

Doonhamer said...

but where are the apostrophe's?

MTG said...

I despair.

JuliaM said...

"...it would appear that the plurality of the items mentioned in the notice makes it bunkum.
"


Ah! I knew there was something wrong but couldn't quite put my finger on why!

"I had fun with a Stallholder at a market who had a notice, "Everything here £1". I gave him a £1 and started to collect the items together. He seemed slightly miffed at my action, I do not know why."

😂🤣

"...but where are the apostrophe's?"

👏

Peter MacFarlane said...

It's the wearing that's being prohibited, as you can see from the very first two words of the notice.

The wearing is singular, so it's "is".


Really this is (should be) primary-school level grammar.