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Could you please tell me which sentence is correct?

  1. It's not worth learning many a language when you haven't got the opportunity to use them.
  2. It's not worth learning many a language when you haven't got the opportunity to use it.

Until now, I've only known that "many a + singular noun" takes a singular verb. Unfortunately, I've never heard about the correct pronoun for it.

Before I posted this question, I'd done some searching and this is the only one that I've found useful. But it seems to be a mere opinion, not an officially accepted usage or something like that. What I really want is a widely accepted usage.

Please enlighten me. Thanks in advance.

P/s: This is not a duplicate of this question. In other words, I've already known the use of "many" vs "many a". You can clearly see that my question isn't about "many" vs "many a". In addition to that, the link above refers to a question that doesn't even mention anything about "pronoun" while mine is mainly about it.

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Huy
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  • Until now, I've only known that "many a + singular noun" takes a singular verb. Unfortunately, I've never heard about the correct pronoun for it. – Huy Feb 09 '17 at 14:27
  • http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/226561/question-tag-for-many-a Before I posted this question, I'd done some searching and this is the only one that I've found useful. But it seems to be a mere opinion, not an officially accepted usage or something like that. – Huy Feb 09 '17 at 14:35
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    You should probably try this question at English Language Learners about how to judge and apply basic number agreement. – Mitch Feb 09 '17 at 14:51
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    @Mitch this construction is weird enough that I think it fits here. It's not a simple case of number agreement. – 1006a Feb 09 '17 at 15:32
  • Possible duplicate of Usage of "many" vs "many a"? – Robusto Feb 09 '17 at 15:34
  • @1006a OK then, but then it's a duplicate. – Mitch Feb 09 '17 at 16:02
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    @Mitch If you're referring to the question linked by Robusto, there is no mention of pronouns in that question or its answers. All of the examples are of a simple many a noun + verb structure, without any reference back to the original. If there's another duplicate that does address this question, please point it out. – 1006a Feb 09 '17 at 16:10
  • @1006a The answers to that question address what the number is of 'many a X' (singular). – Mitch Feb 09 '17 at 16:14
  • @Robusto It's not a duplicate. In other words, I've already known the use of "many" vs "many a". You can clearly see that my question isn't about "many" vs "many a". In addition to that, your link refers to a question that doesn't even mention anything about "pronoun" while mine is mainly about it. Anyway, thanks for your time. – Huy Feb 09 '17 at 16:14
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    Ignoring the main question about the number of 'many a X', the construction is "It's not worth learning many a language." sounds really 'off' to me, very unnatural. I'm not sure if it is because 'many a X' is archaic or if it is ungrammatical. "I ate many a danish"...I guess that's OK, sort of, if I were knocked upside the head and talking. But the I'd say, "They tasted good" not "It tasted good". "It's not worth learning many languages" is the natural way to say it. – Mitch Feb 09 '17 at 16:19
  • @Huy That question has answers that address the number of 'many a X'. Which is what you are looking for, right? Which pronoun you want depends on number. – Mitch Feb 09 '17 at 16:20
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    Many a N constructions are archaic and uncommon. One encounters them in poetry and old writing, but not in speech. So their syntax is pretty primitive, and there is no rule for number agreement with anaphors, so pronouns can work any way you like. – John Lawler Feb 09 '17 at 17:45
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    I'm going to go ahead and assert that the use of "many a" here isn't just "weird"; it's simply not correct. "Many a " is a construct for creating a sentence that applies individually to each instance of "": "many a foe has fallen before my blade." But that makes no sense here: the whole point of the sentence, it seems, is to describe the general principle that if one doesn't have the opportunity to practice a language, then that language isn't worth using. But the "many a" construction seems to imply that this principle applies to many languages, not to all languages. – Kyle Strand Feb 09 '17 at 20:07
  • On the other hand, if the sentence is trying to say that it's okay to learn a few languages without having the opportunity to practice them, but it's silly to learn many languages without opportunities to practice them, then the "many a" construct is misleading because the statement no longer applies to each language individually. – Kyle Strand Feb 09 '17 at 20:09
  • Note that it's quite easy to construct a completely different sentence requiring a pronoun for "many a" that makes much more sense: "Many a man has tried to swim this channel and found his powers failed him before he reached the shore." It's quite obvious here that the plural pronoun ("...found their powers failed them...") would be unwarranted. – Kyle Strand Feb 09 '17 at 20:11

3 Answers3

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Neither of those sounds correct to me. Many a is a rather unusual construction: as you know, it takes a singular verb because each individual of the "many" acts or is acted on one at a time. However, when referring back to the many whatevers, we ordinarily use another "group of individuals" structure: either them all or each one rather than a simple they or it.

Some examples of what I mean:

Since those days I have had many a good dog at my side and many a good time beside them, and I have loved them all . . . . (A. Hunter Smith, A Life Afield, 2014)

Many a heart is aching, if you could read them all (Charles K. Harris, "After the Ball", 1891)

I've been to many a dentist and each one has been a exercise in some kind of torture. (Scott McIntyre, Facebook dentist review, 2016)

How many a year has passed and gone
Many a gamble has been lost and won
And many a road taken by many a first friend
And each one I've never seen again.
(Bob Dylan, "Bob Dylan's Dream", 1963)

So for your example, you would need either

It's not worth learning many a language when you haven't got the opportunity to use them all.

or

It's not worth learning many a language when you haven't got the opportunity to use each one.

Also, I will point out that (as these examples demonstrate) many a is a fairly poetical/literary phrase, and isn't very common in regular conversation. Use it mainly when you want to evoke a more lyrical feeling.

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1006a
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  • You literally nailed it. This is exactly what I've been looking for :)). Thanks a lot. – Huy Feb 09 '17 at 15:48
  • +1, and good arguing on this question not being a duplicate. However, I don't feel "each one" is appropriate in the example sentence; i.e. it sounds wrong to my ear. "Each and every one" would work. That said, it sounds wrong in the Bob Dylan lyrics too; that should maybe be "I've never seen any of them again"... but then the whole quote from that song sounds off to me anyway. – AndyT Feb 09 '17 at 16:29
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    @Huy No, he did not literally nail it. :) – Masked Man Feb 10 '17 at 04:20
  • On the other hand, I find “Many a language is not worth learning if you haven't got the opportunity to use it” perfectly fine and, in fact, more natural sounding. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 10 '17 at 07:18
  • I have thought long and hard over this question, and the above answer just about covers it. TO QUOTE: '...many a is a fairly poetical/literary phrase, and isn't very common in regular conversation...'. May I add that there are times I will use this form when 'chatting' to my husband, I would not use it in everyday conversation - or with a second language learner/user. – dougal 5.0.0 Feb 10 '17 at 13:36
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In general, you use the singular with "many a":

many a man came to try his luck, but none could untangle the knot.

The problem is that when you use "many a" you need to treat it as a collection of individual items, not as a group. For example, neither of the two following sentences work:

*Many a man can carry only a small stone, but working together, he could move a mountain.
*Many a man can carry only a small stone, but working together, they could move a mountain.

(although the second is not as bad). You have to drop the "many a ..." construction to get this sentence to work:

Many men can carry only a small stone, but working together, they could move a mountain.

You're treating "many a language" as a group in your sentence.

Peter Shor
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I agree with Yosef about using the word "times". I had already begun to write a similar comment when I noticed his comment. The word "times" is basically unspoken. The core nature of the problem is that the subject of the sentence is effectively a frequency statistic of certain events or attributes. The pronoun should refer to that statistic, not the outcomes measured by the statistic. Some of the published examples do not do this and (I believe) are thus flawed.

Many a time I am not a master of eloquence and for those times (note plural) when I've spoken awkwardly, I apologize.

Roger Dodger
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