Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hamlet]

I think both are correct.
My coworker says only number 2 is correct.

What do you think...

1. the benefits of having young people doing community service

2. the benefits of having young people do community service

[edwardcatflap]

this seems to me like the difference between

I watched them play football and

I watched them playing football.

They are both correct but the first one suggests the speaker watched the whole game while the second suggests the action of watching wasn't completed.

similarly the benfits of having young people do community service suggests the benefits are seen once the action is completed whereas the benefits of having people doing community service suggests the benefits can be seen during the acitivity

[Gibberish]

Let me try to use some examples that work. A principal looks at his students cleaning up a park:

1. ""These are the benefits of having young people doing community service, the park gets clean.

2. "The benefits of having young people do community service is that it gets them outside and working."

So yeah, edward is right, the first one hints at an uncompleted action and the second is more of a generality.

[ucbhanna]

What about this one?

1) There is a variety of colors.
2) There are a variety of colors.

[Epicurus]

[Epicurus]

for the North American to use "are" in the construct.

we'd have to eliminate the "a", which implies/confirms the singularity of the word "variety".

erg

there are many varietieS of colors to choose from.

Brits (dunno about Aussies, Kiwis, SA's etc) don't stick to this logical approach, they use a different logic (which is retarded to NA's)

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

[ucbhanna]

On that note, I'll throw one more out there:

1) There is a couple of ways to do this.
2) There are a couple of ways to do this.

Would that same rule apply here?
[/b]

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

[seonsengnimble]

[janydc]

The correct sentence would be " There are a couple of ways to do this".

Despite "couple" being a collective noun, it is referring to more than one action, hence the plural "are" is the right verb form to use.

Think of it as "There is two ways to do this" versus " There are two ways to do this".

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

Mmm, I'm gonna have to beg to differ, janydc

It just depends on where you live and what register you're speaking

If you read:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/couple

I think the general consensus is that "a couple", when referring to two people, tends to take the plural verb. When "couple" refers to a pair of something, it can take either verb, though the plural form may be more common (note that commonality does not imply formality - actually, the opposite is usually true). Personally, I would never say "The couple are going to the party"; I would say "The couple's going to the party." And since I'm a native speaker, it means that construction is descriptively valid. Whether it is formal or not is up for debate, but prescriptivism is essentially meaningless anyway, and the jury is clearly still out on the issue.

Regardless, the reason "There are two ways to do this" is correct is because here 'ways' is the subject, not 'two', and 'ways' is clearly plural. In the original sentence, 'ways' is the object of a preposition, which can never be the subject.

Anyway, 'a couple of' is not a very formal construction to begin with, so I wouldn't worry too much about the verb choice.


ETA: Colloquially, I would also likely say, "There's two ways to do this," although I probably wouldn't in formal speech, and I certainly wouldn't in formal writing. FWIW.

[Epicurus]

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

[Epicurus]