Quebec French Syntax - Number

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:

    God ... created a number of possibilities in case some of his prototypes failed—that is the meaning of evolution.
    Graham Greene (1904–1991)

    It is not the number of years we have behind us, but the number we have before us, that makes us careful and responsible and determined to find out the truth about everything.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    Can a woman become a genius of the first class? Nobody can know unless women in general shall have equal opportunity with men in education, in vocational choice, and in social welcome of their best intellectual work for a number of generations.
    Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)