Thursday, November 11, 2010

Correct grammar that sounds incorrect

I forgot to add this yesterday. A single sentence in the morning Midlands news on the BBC - "One in ten beds is taken by someone who does not require it".

Here it's the conjunction of the plural "beds" with the singular "is". As the object under discussion is the one bed (singular) it is correct, it just sounds odd to me at least. Now "Of ten beds one is..." or "For every ten beds one is..." flows more smoothly.

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