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Possible Duplicate:
Is a company always plural, or are small companies singular?
Is “staff” plural?

When a political candidate gets an endorsement from a newspaper, the sentence would be

The Los Angeles Times gave Candidate x its endorsement.

Is it appropriate to use their instead of its if we rewrite the sentence to include editorial board?

The editorial board of the Los Angeles Times gave Candidate x their endorsement.

Community
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Mike Sullivan
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1 Answers1

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American English uses the singular pronoun, and verbs, for a board (or team, vel sim.) and British uses the plural.

msh210
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  • source, please? – Kris Jan 31 '12 at 09:29
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    Americans do sometimes use "their" to refer to "board" or "team"; for example, most Americans would not say "the team put on its uniforms" (at least, I certainly wouldn't). However, for the sentence the OP is asking about, I believe most Americans would use "its". – Peter Shor Jan 31 '12 at 10:47
  • And for evidence, here is an Ngram showing that in the U.S., "its" has been more popular since around 1880. – Peter Shor Jan 31 '12 at 11:09
  • @Kris, dunno. But see the linked-to questions. – msh210 Jan 31 '12 at 15:29