Yourgrammarpolice

Hello venerable reader,📚
welcome to YOUR GRAMMAR POLICE series!👮🏾

Day 1.

Monday December 23, 2019

Segment: Grammar

This segment looks at correcting a wrong expression in grammar.

WRONG : Claudia, please verify "who and who" were at work yesterday and let me know.💔

CORRECTION

Note that the expression above is wrong because of the use of the fragment "who and who!"

The word "who" is an interrogative pronoun and singular by default. What most English speakers fail to see is that the same word "who" is also plural, thus both singular and plural forms have "who"

Because many people think "who" only as singular, they tend to multiply it or say it multiple times when using it to refer to many objects. The number of times the word "who" is repeated usually depends on the number of people or objects one has in mind; for instance for only two (2) people in mind the speaker may say "who and who...", for three people, "who and who and who..." and so on.

Funny, isn't it?😄
How many times then will the word "who" be repeated when the speaker has ten (10) or even more people in mind🤔.

In the wrong expression given above, the speaker actually expects two (2) or more people to have have come to work yesterday, hence the expression "who and who..." 😆

'Using only (one) WHO, is enough for every number of objects one wants to refer to'.💪

The correct expression therefore must be

Claudia, please verify "who were" at work yesterday and let me know. ✅

Do you now see how simple and soothing good English is?🏋🏽

Note also that the following expressions are correct;

1. 'Who are' already on the bus?

2. 'Who have' already crossed the river?

3. 'Who are' competing today?

Don't say who and who are competing today?❌
Or which team and which team are competing today?❌
You can say 'which teams' are competing today✅

That will be all for the segment today.

Thanks for reading🤝

AUTHOR ✍: My Prince.
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