On 16/10/2013 12:29, Bob Hobden wrote:
"shazzbat" wrote


"Tom Gardner"wrote
David Hill wrote:
Around £10,000 were stolen from a house
Or should it be
Around £10,000 was stolen from a house.

If you regard the money as individual notes then they "were" stolen
but if you regard it as a single unit of money then it "was" stolen.
It's niggling me.

IMNSHO the sentence is referring to a single unit,
therefore "was" is correct. Besides, it "sounds"
more elegant. If, OTOH, you had written "£10,000
worth of notes" then "were" would be correct.

GrammAr and spulling are they're to help people communicate
and understand each other Beyond that it is a question of
style and elegance.

And no, I'm not prepared to defend that statement.

You don't need to. It is self-evident.

While we are on this thread when did it become "Bored of this...."
instead of "bored with this....". I've even seen it written in adverts
lately.

Now for a discussion, should it be "Can I help you" or "May I help you"
when you answer the phone etc? :-)



Regarding the latter, it should be "can I help you?" or even "How can I
help you?" "May" is permissive and your caller is already allowing you
to help them, so it only remains to satisfy *if* you can help them.

Occasionally, when wishing to help someone but not cause offence, I
might say "May I help you?" or "Will you let me help you with ..". In
that instance, I have already decided that I *can* help, but wish to be
allowed to help.

--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay