Number
On the other hand, many Quebecers in informal context will decide on the agreement with collective nouns based on semantics rather than morphology. That is to say, for instance, that a verb whose grammatical subject is le monde (people, folks) may appear in the 3rd person plural because le monde designates multiple people although it is singular: le monde là-dedans sont en train de chiâler (the people in there are complaining).
Read more about this topic: Quebec French Syntax
Famous quotes containing the word number:
“My idea is that the world outsidethe so-called modern worldcan only pervert and degrade the conceptions of the primitive instinct of art and feeling, and that our only chance is to accept the limited number of survivorsthe one- in-a-thousand of born artists and poetsand to intensify the energy of feeling within that radiant centre.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (18381918)
“Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.”
—Cyril Connolly (19031974)
“I believe if we introduced the Lords Prayer here, senators would propose a large number of amendments to it.”
—Henry Wilson (18121875)