I am trying to determine which sentence is correct.
A) Storyboards got their name from the bulletin boards containing cartoon drawings.
B) Storyboards got its name from bulletin boards containing cartoon drawings.
Asked
Active
Viewed 9,551 times
1
-
possible duplicate of Company names, use of "have" and "has" – FumbleFingers Jan 28 '15 at 21:02
-
1This is a little more complex than the possible duplicate because of the ambiguity of plural storyboards and singular name. – ScotM Jan 28 '15 at 21:06
1 Answers
1
On its face the correct one would be:
Storyboards got their name from the bulletin boards containing cartoon drawings.
If storyboards are considered as a singular tool in the movie industry, you might get away with:
Storyboards got its name from bulletin boards containing cartoon drawings.
but it would sound awkward. You would never be wrong with:
Storyboards got their name from the bulletin boards containing cartoon drawings.
There is more than one cartoon "board" in storyboards, so you want the plural pronoun their to refer to them.
The singular name is correctly distributed across on organization of related entities:
The Nights of Columbus got their name from the famous mariner Christopher Columbus.
ScotM
- 30,572