The sentence I'm having problems with is " Since 1896 the Olympic Games (be held) ________ every four years with some exceptions." The answer key says it is "has been held". Why should it be the singular form "has" instead of "have" as "Games" are plural,aren't they? Please explain to me why it should be "has been" instead of "have been".
Asked
Active
Viewed 354 times
1
-
2Nobody can explain that, because the majority of English speakers would say the Olympic Games have been. See Google Ngrams. But a few treat it as a singular, since it's a single event, and would say has been. – Peter Shor Jan 18 '19 at 16:03
-
1Similar: Question about a single event with a plural ending – herisson Jan 18 '19 at 16:55
1 Answers
1
The Olympic Games can be thought of as a single event which happens to be labelled as ‘the Olympic Games’. Correspondingly, as an event is singular, then the specific form of the verb is also singular. However, in my view, either would be valid. It’s similar to whether the name of a sports team is deemed singular (such as in US) or plural (as in UK).
Steve Caine
- 11
-
2Names of sports teams are generally plural, even in the U.S. (The Miami Heat are ahead ...) If you call sports teams by the cities they come from, then they're singular in the U.S. and plural in the U.K. (Miami is ahead ...) I agree that this is completely illogical, but who expects language to be logical? – Peter Shor Jan 18 '19 at 16:58