Brangelina are is correct usage

Q: It seems to me that over the last couple of years (or more), it has become quite common for U.S.-born English speakers to use British rules of matching nouns and verb tense instead of American rules. For example, when referring to a noun which is considered singular in the United States — such as corporation, staff, council, etc. — we have been taught to use a singular tense: is, has, operates. However, even in your recent column headline the other day, “Brangelina have a home in Missouri” was used instead of “Brangelina has.” I have also noticed it with broadcasters of all types. Do you know why this usage has become so common in the United States? Or do you think it could more often be a mistake on the writer’s/speaker’s part in correctly identifying the object of the verb?

A: It’s funny how seemingly inconsequential moments stick with you the rest of your life.

I distinctly remember the day my high school honors English class peppered a visiting language expert about various topics with which students often have problems. While I don’t remember most of the discussion, I still clearly recall being surprised when he agreed that sometimes it can be acceptable to use a plural verb and pronoun with a collective noun that most people would consider singular (team, jury, committee, etc.) His argument: Such a group is composed of many individuals, and, at times, those individuals act, well, individually and not as a herd. At those times, he said, it is logical and perfectly correct to use a plural verb and pronoun.

He’s far from being the only linguist to argue the case — and they’re not all from England. You may not agree, but let me give you an example from the late Jane Straus, a San Francisco native who wrote the best-selling “Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation,” which enjoyed multiple editions through the years. “Our staff meets on Tuesday mornings to discuss customer complaints.” In this case, she explained, the staff is acting as a unit and deserves a singular verb.

But, she argued, “Our staff work hard to meet their goals and deadlines” is equally correct. In this case, she said, you’re writing about the staff as a number of individuals who have different goals and deadlines. Therefore, it’s proper to use a plural verb and pronoun. The same reasoning could be used for “Dr. Schlueter’s class is about to take its first math test. After the test, the class will start their research papers on famous mathematicians.” In the first sentence, everyone will be doing the exact same thing. The research papers, however, are not a collective project; each student will be choosing his or her own subject.

“Couple” is an equally troublesome collective noun, but in the case of “Brangelina” I have to defend our copy desk as being correct — and I have my Associated Press stylebook, a reporter’s usage bible, to back me up. In the AP’s entry on “couple,” it says, “When used in the sense of two people, the word takes plural verbs and pronouns: ‘The couple were married Saturday and left Sunday on their honeymoon.’ In the sense of a single unit, use a singular verb: ‘Each couple was asked to give $10.’”

In the case of my column, the popular term “Brangelina” refers to two distinct people — Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Therefore, a plural verb was necessary: They have a home in Missouri.

That said, I will admit British usage can be jarring to my ears sometimes, but linguists there argue it’s just because we’re not used to hearing it and not that it’s necessarily wrong. Perhaps the best advice for writers is that if you’re not sure what to do, reword your sentence. Instead of jury, class or team, for example, use jury members, students or players.

That way everyone will agree on the proper subject-verb-pronoun agreement.

Q: Over the weekend, your competition ran a story about soldiers from the Belleville-based Army Reserve’s 958th Movement Control Team preparing to deploy to Kuwait to help manage the logistics of men and equipment coming in and out. It said that this is the fourth time since 2002 that the unit has been deployed. What’s going on? I thought the RESERVES are supposed to be held in RESERVE and only called up in an all-out war. Where are the active duty units?

A: You probably wouldn’t get an argument from most tired reservists being called up for another tour, but if you read the fine print, they can be called up at the government’s discretion at any time. Just read this handout distributed by the Veterans Administration:

“The purpose of the Reserve is to provide and maintain trained units and qualified persons to be available for active duty in the armed forces when needed. This may be in times of war, in a national emergency, or as the need occurs based on threats to national security (emphasis mine). Their presence can be called upon to serve either stateside or overseas.”

I’m sure President Obama would remind you, too, that we’ve been in a global war on terrorism ever since his predecessor, George Bush, launched Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001 after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda from Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks. And even if you personally don’t define what we’re doing right now as “war,” don’t forget that in 1954, when the draft was still in effect, active duty military personnel in the armed forces numbered 3.3 million. As of last year, it was 1.35 million, a drop of nearly 60 percent even as the U.S. population roughly doubled from 163 million to 319 million.

Are you getting a better idea of why so many reservists are being called into action these days?

Today’s trivia

What was the first company founded by a woman to be listed on the American Stock Exchange?

Answer to Monday’s trivia: By the time you reach the top of Mount Whitney in California, the highest peak in the Lower 48, you might need to heed nature’s call. To oblige, the National Park Service built the country’s highest outhouse at 14,494 feet up with a magnificent view of the surrounding area. But because of the expense and perils of maintaining the privy (hauling out waste drums by helicopter), the primitive loo was removed on Aug. 29, 2007. Now, the 20,000 or so climbers every year are instructed on how to use Wag Bags and reminded to “Pack it in; pack it out.” If they don’t like those, they can always go to the top of Mount Elbrus in Russia (18,510 feet), where they’ll find the world’s nastiest outhouse. It’s reportedly surrounded by and covered in ice perched off the end of a rock with an open pipe to dump waste down the mountain.

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 5:35 AM with the headline "Brangelina are is correct usage."