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Pedants' corner

AARRRGH AARRRRGH!! National Express trains have had me all lathered up in a frenzy!

6 replies

theSuburbanDryad · 24/09/2008 08:55

So coming back from Harwich yesterday I noticed that apparently, "National Express East Anglia is committed to providing a comfortable environment for all it's customers."

Couldn't help staring at it all the way to Colchester. I would have got out a pen and corrected it, but there was CCTV and I am a wimp.

Do you think I should write and complain?

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AllFallDown · 24/09/2008 11:06

Well, the use of "is" is correct. National Express is a single company. It takes a singular verb. "It's" is poor. Unless you misread it and it was really "its" in which case the whole sentence is unimpeachable in grammar, if not in truth.

MadameCastafiore · 24/09/2008 11:07

Buy yourself a book and relax!

AllFallDown · 24/09/2008 11:07

So your subject header should read: "National Express trains has had me all lathered up in a frenzy," Not "have".

theSuburbanDryad · 24/09/2008 18:13

National Express East Anglia is not a single company, I don't think. It's part of the National Express group (which is possibly in itself part of a larger conglomerate) which incorporates the trains and coaches. (AFAIK)

It was definitely "it's". I got up and took a closer look, to make sure, at which the rest of the carriage tittered, I am sure. Wish I'd taken a picture now.

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AllFallDown · 24/09/2008 19:47

Yes, but National Express East Anglia is still one division, so it's a singular. It's is of course wrong. But is is correct. It is a single entity: the company as a whole is apologising, not all its employees. In UK English this rule of using a singular for organisations is broken only for groups we think of as agglomerations of individuals: in effect, sports teams ("Chelsea were beaten") and pop groups ("Girls Aloud were rubbish").

theSuburbanDryad · 24/09/2008 20:34

I bow down to your superior pedantry, AFD.

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