单数与复数
一些单数名词可以和复数动词及代词连用：
The team are playing magnificently, aren’t they?
一些复数名词可以和单数动词和代词连用：
Five pounds doesn’t buy as much as it used to.
有一些复数名词看起来像单数，用法看具体情况，灵话多变。
Police, people, cattle
有些单数名词看起来像复数，使用时仍作为单数看待。
News, a series, a means, a crossroads
一些看来是错误倾向其实是正确的表达法。（在非正式的口语体里）
Here’s your keys.
None of my friends are (or: is) likely to come.
If anybody wants to give their name for the trip to Scotland, will they please do it before lunchtime?
Three dozen, five foot six inches
Give us a kiss, darling. (Here “us” means “me”)

下面我们继续看一些经典例句：
１、 My family have decided to move to Nottingham.
２、 “How are the team?”--------“Oh, they’re very optimistic.”
３、 The government are hoping to ease import restrictions soon.
４、 The team is at the bottom of the third division.
５、 A group of us have decided to hire a boat and travel through Holland by canal.
６、 The majority of the damage is easy to repair.
７、 Neither of my brothers has/have been outside England
８、 Cattle are selling for record prices this year.
９、 The youth of today don’t know what they want.
１０、 The police are searching for a tall dark man with a beard.
１１、 Measles takes a long time to get over.
１２、 The United States has a very violent history.
１３、 The fastest means of transport are not always the most comfortable.
１４、 Politics is a complicated business.
１５、 What are your politics?
１６、 Mathematics has the same educational function as classics used to have.
１７、 Twenty miles is a long way to walk.
１８、 When a person has no will to live, they are (he is) often very difficult to help
１９、 If anybody calls, tell them I’m out, but take their name and address.
２０、 Everyone thinks they’re the center of the universe.

小结：
名词或名词性短语做主语时，要与谓语动词取得数的一致。单数复数是语法上的一种形式。单数名词表示一个人，一件事物的概念，而复数名词表示多于一人或一物的概念。
主语和谓语在人称和数上的一致关系，一般遵循三条原则。即语法一致原则，意义一致原则和就近一致原则。特别值得注意的是意义一致的原则，谓语要取决于主语所表达的意义。
以上的例句是以英式的英语为主，实际上在美国的英语中或许并不通行。语言本身在变化中，部分当时正确的说法或许现在并不通用。　

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