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Sun Mai
Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Posts: 7
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 Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:33 pm Post subject: Is this a trick question? Grammar help! |
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Hi everybody!
This is from a sheet of exercises for ESL students. Out of four possible options, students must choose which word is incorrect. Of all the problems in the exercise, this is the only one where an error isn't readily apparent (to me, at least).
Am I missing something? If so, can anyone tell me what it is, and why? Or is it just a trick question?
Here it is:
Methane in wetlands comes from soil bacteria that consumes organic plant matter.
The alleged error is one of the underlined words...
I am really working to improve my grammar. I'd appreciate any help you have to offer. Thanks. |
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SueH
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy
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| Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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| bacteria is plural |
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Alex42
Joined: 14 Jun 2004
Posts: 77
Location: Salta, Argentina
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| Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:44 pm Post subject: |
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"Bacteria" is the plural of "bacterium". That should give you a clue:-)
**SueH just got in ahead of me as I posted this reply!** |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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Hint...
Soil Bacteria |
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Sun Mai
Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 6:41 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks everyone!
It seems so obvious now that you've pointed it out. And I was just yesterday explaining Latin-type plurals to someone! Duh....
Thanks again. |
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SueH
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy
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| Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Don't worry. I suspect all of us have ignored the obvious at times:-) |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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Google gives 256,000 hits for "bacteria is" and 603,000 for "bacteria are"..
Some of the hits for "bacteria is" have another subject, such as "a strain of bacteria", which explains the singular verb. Nevertheless, there are many examples where bacteria is the grammatical subject of the singular verb
. the digestive tract. A sample of the patient's feces is placed in a special
medium where bacteria is then grown. The bacteria that ...
www.chclibrary.org/micromed/00066440.html
Bacteria is very important in medicine. ...
www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/ youngnaturalistawards/1998/bacteria.htm
A bacteria is a single, self-contained, living cell. ...
science.howstuffworks.com/cell1.htm
At a guess I would say that bacteria is treated as plural about ten times more often than it is treated as singular or uncountable, but the latter case happens often enough for it not to be considered an error, which explains your initial confusion.
I can't remember if it was Mark Lieberman or Geoffrey Pullum who suggest that the rubric for many of the Grammar questions in the SATS should be changed from
"circle the mistake"
to
"find the perfectly valid form that goes against the antiquated and/or purely personal prejudices of the people who devised this examination." |
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moonraven
Joined: 24 Mar 2004
Posts: 3094
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| Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 2:38 am Post subject: |
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| The example given by the OP is taken straight from one of the TOEFL practice exams. |
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Sheep-Goats
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
Posts: 527
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| Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 5:20 am Post subject: |
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| Consume, not "consumes." And you don't really have to know about Latin plurals to answer this as what we're referring to here is obviously more than one (and more than one type, even) of bacteria. |
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Roger
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Posts: 9138
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| Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:08 am Post subject: |
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The answer the OP has received as to what was wrong in the sentence is correct; perhaps people are not used to writing 'bacteria' in singular any more? I seem to notice a proliferation of the wrong use of 'bacteria' these days.
Ditto for 'phenomenon/phenomena'. |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:38 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| The example given by the OP is taken straight from one of the TOEFL practice exams. |
Doesn't surprise me in the least. The TOEFL suffer from the same problem as the SATS. What you need to know is not the correct or incorrect English form, but the particular arbitrary rule that the examiners have got a crush on.
It gets particularly perverse when you get an alternative that says "None of these", since then you need to decide whether the examiner is testing your command of English usage, or your conformity with the same set of prejudices he has.
| Quote: |
| And you don't really have to know about Latin plurals to answer this as what we're referring to here is obviously more than one (and more than one type, even) of bacteria. |
Google has plenty of examples of bacteria used as an uncountable noun (that is with a singular verb). If it is not clear to all scientists posting on websites of reputable academic institutions, then it is not going to be clear to the layman.
| Quote: |
| I seem to notice a proliferation of the wrong use of 'bacteria' these days. |
If you're noticing a "proliferation" of the usage, it is obviously no longer wrong.
On a more general level there is a definite tendency for Latin plurals to evolve into non-count nouns over time. 'Data' is an obvious example but there are more. And indeed they are not confined to Latin plurals. "Mathematics" and "news" are two examples of French/English plurals evolving into non-count nouns.
Sometimes you will get the Latin plural treated as a singular and made plural in English. Here is an example: Battle of the Bacterias. ... What they all have in common is that they all are deadly.
Wage war on these bad bacterias before they wage war on your fish! ...
www.ponddoc.com/WhatsUpDoc/ FishHealth/BattleBacteria.htm -
I would say that 'bacterias' is probably sub-standard, but bacteria used as a non-count noun is certainly correct and so is 'bacteria' used as a singular in the sense of one species of bacteria. |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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Stephen, I have to ask...do you work for Google?  |
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zewd
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 42
Location: Lynchburg, VA, USA
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| Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Battle of the Bacterias. ... What they all have in common is that they all are deadly.
Wage war on these bad bacterias before they wage war on your fish! ...
www.ponddoc.com/WhatsUpDoc/ FishHealth/BattleBacteria.htm - |
The above quote is correct. This is actually common in taxonomy and has nothing to do with a transition from Latin to English. "Bacterium" refers to an individual organism. "Bacteria" is a group of bacterium that are of the same species. "Bacterias" is a group of bacterium that are of different species.
Same goes for fish: two trout would be called "fish" in plural, but a bass and a trout would be called "fishes" since they're of different species. |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:18 pm Post subject: |
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I'm afraid zewd I am more than sceptical about your explanation. There are simply too many examples where 'bacteria' is used to describe different kinds of bacteria.
Can you give us a link to xome kind of authoritative quote to back up your argument? |
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zewd
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 42
Location: Lynchburg, VA, USA
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| Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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Hmm... 'fraid I owe an apology.  I have read all sorts of scientific texts where the words "bacteria" and "bacterias" are used in the manner I described above, but now that I've looked for them in reference to proper grammar I see nothing supporting this and plenty of sources refuting it. Naturally, I'll take the word of an English authority over a science authority on this one. |
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