Thursday, February 28, 2019

grammatical number - Plurality of a group also referenced using we/our/us



This question (migrated to writers.se) uses an example sentence along the lines of




ABC is expanding our operations overseas.




As a Brit, I'm quite comfortable with either ABC is or ABC are in most contexts, but in this particular construction the switch in plurality from is to our in a single sentence really grates. Curiously, I find I don't have this problem if those two words are in separate sentences.





ABC is a dynamic company. We are expanding our operations overseas.




Is this just a personal hangup of mine? Or there a US/UK divide on the issue?



I don't think this is a question about whether companies are singular or plural (as covered here). I'm asking about attitudes to using both is and our in the same sentence like this.


Answer





ABC is expanding our operations overseas.




This is grammatically correct, but doesn’t have the intended meaning. Our cannot refer to ABC because they disagree in person: ABC is third-person while our is first-person. In that sentence, ABC is transitively expanding “our operations”.



If we’re treating ABC as singular, then it should be:




ABC is expanding its operations overseas.





Treating ABC as plural:




ABC is expanding their operations overseas.




If the intent was to add emphasis to the fact that the speaker is part of ABC:





We at ABC are expanding our operations overseas.



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