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Possible Duplicate:
What is wrong with “I don’t like these kind of things”?

"Questions such as these need to be raised" or: "Questions such as this need to be raised"

MSFT Word thinks it's "this".

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shankapotomus
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    It depends on what precedes the sentence. – Barrie England Jan 02 '13 at 21:31
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    It depends on what the pronoun refers to. How many example sentences are there? If just one, use "this"; if more than one, use "these". Generally. But it really depends. – Marthaª Jan 02 '13 at 21:33
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    Please don't think Word knows what it's talking about! – Andrew Leach Jan 02 '13 at 21:36
  • Thanks, the sentence is preceded by 2 questions so "these" it is. Word had be second-guessing myself (as it often does). Thanks for the help. – shankapotomus Jan 02 '13 at 21:40
  • I don't think this is a duplicate of that question. That question asked what made the sample sentence grammatically incorrect. This question, though, simply asks which grammatically correct sentence makes sense in context. – MetaEd Jan 03 '13 at 00:16
  • @MετάEd: I now agree, but I can't reverse my ill-considered closevote! – FumbleFingers Jan 03 '13 at 01:31

2 Answers2

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If it is plural then the statement should be "Questions such as these," if the the statement is singular it should be "A question such as this"

Leona
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    Why do you think it should be "A question such as this"? If there's the example question (what "this" refers to), plus at least one other question like it, then that's at least two questions. – Marthaª Jan 02 '13 at 21:36
  • I agree with @Martha. "A question such as this" and "questions such as this" mean slightly different things. For example, you can say "I hate people like John Doe", but "I hate a person like John Doe" doesn't make much sense—why not just say "I hate John Doe". – Peter Shor Jan 03 '13 at 01:32
  • @Peter: "I hate a person like that" doesn't sound unreasonable to me. – FumbleFingers Jan 03 '13 at 02:36
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The four permutations are...

A. You asked Q1. Questions such as this are Off Topic.
B. You asked Q1. Questions such as these are Off Topic.

A - this = question Q1 which you have asked (or this type of question)
B - these = questions (of the same type as Q1).

C. You asked Q1 and Q2. Questions such as this are Off Topic.
D. You asked Q1 and Q2. Questions such as these are Off Topic.

C - this = this type of question.
D - these = the questions Q1 and Q2 (or questions of the same type)

There's scope to argue against B, and, to a lesser extent, C. But I believe all forms occur, and I doubt everyone who argues against some of them would necessarily notice every "transgression".

FumbleFingers
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  • Using the singular in C doesn't sound correct to me. – James Jan 03 '13 at 03:31
  • @James: Perhaps I should have italicised and bracketed (You asked Q1 and Q2) so you'd read that bit as "stage directions". It was just to set the context of what came before. All I'm saying is when you're casting around for something to hang "this" on, it's natural to come up with this type of question in C, since you know what you're looking for has to be singular. – FumbleFingers Jan 03 '13 at 03:41