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In the magazine Astronomy Now I find the following sentence as caption to an image:

NGC 5256 is a pair of galaxies in its final stage of merging

My reading is that ‘its’ is incorrect and that it should be ‘their’. My reasons are:

  1. the possessive pronoun must surely qualify the plural noun ‘galaxies’ rather that the singular noun ‘pair’;
  2. the participle ‘merging’ must similarly qualify ‘galaxies’ and not ‘pair’.

But is that right?

freginold
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Tuffy
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1 Answers1

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The sentence demonstrates a common pitfall that has caught generations of young students - not to mention quite a few adults.

In the sentence

NGC 5256 is a pair of galaxies in its final stage of merging

the subject is the singular word pair. Its (grammatical) number is not altered by the prepositional phrase with a plural object.

A pair of Queens beats a pair of Tens

...in grammar as well as poker.

Rob_Ster
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    This is an inadequate treatment. 'A pair of' may be treated notionally as either a whole or two separate elements. Obviously, with a pair of binoculars / trousers, the separate element treatment is unavailable. With OP's example, either concept makes sense, and non-prescriptivists may use plural agreement. I trust nobody would say 'In the sentence "A couple of mince pies were/was on the table" the subject is the singular word couple. Its (grammatical) number is not altered by the prepositional phrase with a plural object.' / In any case, 'A pair of' is a often a compound quantifier. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 27 '17 at 15:55
  • I think Rob is trying to say: if the object is an "it," then it takes the singular; but if it is construed as as a "they," then the verb becomes plural. The OP's example of NGC 5256 seems most appropriately viewed as a singular region of space containing a pair of galaxies. – Stu W Dec 27 '17 at 16:35
  • @EdwinAshworth - Guily as charged. The response was a very narrow sally to a specific instance in the question. Indeed, I think the only reliable answer to almost any English language question begins, "It depends..." Cheers! – Rob_Ster Dec 27 '17 at 17:06
  • I’m sorry, my sentence 2 was a howler. ‘merging’ is a kind of gerund, not a participle. – Tuffy Dec 27 '17 at 20:54
  • But suppose the original sentence is changed: – Tuffy Dec 27 '17 at 20:58
  • Sorry: I keep forgetting that the return key in this mode becomes the ‘send’ key. Suppose the sentence says: ”... shows a pair of galaxies colliding into each other.”. Suppose further that this sentence is changed to: “...a pair of galaxies which <is?>/<are?> colliding into each other.”. Does the rule about ‘pair’ entail that ‘each other’ and other such ‘virtual plural’ terms are forbidden in its presence? – Tuffy Dec 27 '17 at 21:12
  • Not an answer to the question, but here is a picture of NGC 5256. The nuclei of the two galaxies are a mere 13,000 (repeat, 13,000) light years apart). That is, in astronomical terms, they are almost an it. – ab2 Dec 27 '17 at 23:01
  • ... And if it is an 'it', then the process of merging is finished. Whatever is going on now isn't merging. – Phil Sweet Dec 28 '17 at 00:08
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    I have just done what I should have done in the first place, had I understood how the system works. I searched the stack exchange site and found much the same question back in 2011. Then, the weight of argument favoured the view that the rule that the grammatical number is determined by the noun ‘pair’ is a strict grammarian’s rule. It does not reflect actual usage. Apparently, users split roughly evenly. Possibly Americans are more likely to stick with the singular than the British are. [Question from user10375 Jun 27 ‘11]. – Tuffy Dec 28 '17 at 18:36