Round 32, Hour 5

[welfycat.livejournal.com]

*picks up a megaphone. it crackles* MWAHAHAHA HA HA HA!

Mine is an evil laugh! :D

Ahem. That seems to be in working order.

How's it going out there fic-rushers, traveling among all those mighty words?

Last hour we had some writerly pasta. Now, some wordy dinner mints and possibly even some words?

Comments

[sid]

I've torn myself away from the TV (where I hope I gained inspiration from a shirtless 28-year-old Clint Eastwood and a bunch of shirtless Olympic divers) and shall now return to the writerly writing of the wordly words. :-)

ETA: anyone know if 'contingent' takes the plural? The contingent was, or the contingent were discussing matters of great importance. Anyone? Bueller? Nobody's British, if that makes a difference. *g*

[welfycat.livejournal.com]

Contingent sounds singular to me, but I have nothing to base that off of except that "the contingent was" sounds better to my brain.

It's amazing how much inspiration shirtless folks on TV can provide. :D

Yay for writerly writing!

[lolmac]

Basically, typical British usage would be "The contingent were discussing Proust amongst themselves whilst sipping tea", while typical American usage would be "The contingent was arguing among themselves while drinking beer."

But in my ear, if they're doing something that requires plural, separate activity (discussing as opposed to, say, drinking), I'd incline towards a plural verb:

The contingent of athletes were arguing over the last dinner mint.

The contingent of athletes was marching into the stadium.

That may be my ear being weird, though. I think my ears and I are going to bed.

[welfycat.livejournal.com]

You and your ears have a goodnight!

[sid]

*g* Night!