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Grammar question

S

Stojakapimp

Platinum Member
I were playing Trivial Pursuit last night with some friends of mine, and one of the questions asked "Who buy cornerblocks?" and the answer were "stamp collectors." Anyways, we started arguing about whether or not the question should reads "Who buys cornerblocks?" or "Who buy cornerblocks?" From my perspective, the answer are plural meaning that the verb should be singular, so the question were right, but practically nobody else believe me. Any grammar experts out there?
 
The question is worded correctly. Although it's not as commonly used that way, "who" can be used singularly or plurally.
 
It's wrong, it should be buys. The verb does not agree with the answer to the question as thats unknown. It needs to agree with the word "who". Ignore the answer:

Who buys
or
Who buy
 
answer doesnt dictate question.. quesiton is valid by itself... its ambiguous.. i would assume singular by default.. shoudl be buys... grammers is cool
 
Originally posted by: Stojakapimp
I was playing Trivial Pursuit last night with some friends of mine, and one of the questions asked "Who buy cornerblocks?" and the answer was "stamp collectors." Anyways, we started arguing about whether or no the question should read "Who buys cornerblocks?" or "Who buy cornerblocks?" From my perspective, the answer is plural meaning that the verb should be singular, so the question was right, but practically nobody else believe me. Any grammar experts out there?
Click to expand...

Oh - the irony of this thread.
 
Originally posted by: johnjbruin
Originally posted by: Stojakapimp
I was playing Trivial Pursuit last night with some friends of mine, and one of the questions asked "Who buy cornerblocks?" and the answer was "stamp collectors." Anyways, we started arguing about whether or no the question should read "Who buys cornerblocks?" or "Who buy cornerblocks?" From my perspective, the answer is plural meaning that the verb should be singular, so the question was right, but practically nobody else believe me. Any grammar experts out there?
Click to expand...

Oh - the irony of this thread.
Click to expand...

You need more to do.
 
"Who" can be singular or plural. The default is singular. If everyone involved knows it is plural, then use plural, otherwise use the default. In the context of that game, not everyone knows it is plural, thus the singlar form would have been the normal choice. The plural form was used there to probably give a hint to the correct answer.

In other words, what they did was gramatically correct (either would be gramatically correct), but they didn't follow the common format.
 
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