I don't understand why does is not used instead of do in the sentence highlighted in the photo below.
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It should indeed be does. Bank is to be treated singular and so must be followed by does. – Nitika Mar 04 '19 at 08:00
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It's from one of Oxford English course books. The image is from the tapescripts at the end of the book and you can hear the sentence clearly in the audio file as well. – Mai Temp Mar 04 '19 at 08:36
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I think in informal situations, some speakers use 'do' in place of 'does' and vice versa. You may find this in informal BrE or AmE. – Mohamed Ali Mar 04 '19 at 09:15
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In that case, most likely the entity 'bank' is being treated plural. Another reason could be informal / regional usage, though with very low probability as Oxford course book would restrict to universal use. – Nitika Mar 04 '19 at 09:53
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In the U.K., bank can be treated as plural; think of it as meaning all the people working at the bank. – Peter Shor Aug 01 '19 at 12:00
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1The speaker seems unarguably British, of a land where, as Peter says, notional agreement is 'correct'. And having a reasonably strong claim to a 'correct form of English'. Here, I'd say Brits would be split on whether to treat bank as notionally singular (the organisation, almost a gestalt entity) or composite (the people involved at the bank). So, either is 'correct'. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 01 '19 at 14:14
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Possible duplicate of Are collective nouns {company names here} always plural, or are certain ones singular? – Edwin Ashworth Aug 01 '19 at 14:17
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The correct word would indeed be "does". I'm assuming that this conversation was meant to take place in a rural area of the Southern United States, where these grammatical mistakes are often common and intentional due to the regional dialect.
Leon
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I am not sure. First, the other sentences of the dialogue are error free and do not sound too informal. And second, all the grammatical mistakes are mentioned in the teacher's guide. – Mai Temp Mar 04 '19 at 09:14
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That's interesting that there was no added context to the conversation, because it reads as though it were an example of a regional dialect. Perhaps it was meant to be an example of an incorrect usage of do/does? – Leon Mar 04 '19 at 09:20
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In my opinion, it's not so much a mistake as that L is thinking of the bank as a group of people rather than an impersonal organisation. – Kate Bunting Mar 04 '19 at 09:40
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1@Kate Bunting. I agree. The speakers on the audio file are very British, and Brits are more prone than their American counterparts to using the plural when referring to a team or organisation, etc. – Shoe Mar 04 '19 at 10:04
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Dialectal variations in grammar are not mistakes, they're different but equally valid forms, just as it isn't a spelling mistake when a German writes "Buch" instead of "book". – Stuart F Aug 01 '19 at 11:43