This is what I have to think about :/

[upsticks]

Please tell me if I'm wrong, but am I right in thinking that

"working out who the audience is",

is a different thing to

"working out who the audience are"?


Which one's right? Are they both grammatically correct?



Jeez this hurts.

Comments

[purple_bug.livejournal.com]

I'd use "is", I think. I'm imagining describing the audience afterwards, like "The audience was very lively tonight", rather than "the audience were very lively". You'd say "the audience members were very lively", if you wanted to convey them as a group of individuals, rather than one unit of people. But I think both are correct, depending. If you were to say "the audience rose to its foot", then that'd be weird :o)

[glitterfairy25.livejournal.com]

But, isn't there a difference between knowing who the audience is and who they are? If I want to know who my audience *is*, I want to know what kind of people to aim my product at; if I want to know who the audience are I want to be able to connect with them, work out how they work, what they want. It's subtle but it's there, right?

Technically, could you still say "the audience were very lively tonight"? Or is that me just getting really really confused about my life English?

[purple_bug.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I see what you mean. Well then, yeah. That's a good definition between the two :o)

It's correct, I suppose, but sounds a little odd to me.

[marah-sarie.livejournal.com]

I think this might be the kind of thing that's different in British English and American English. Wikipedia has a section on how collective nouns are handled in one versus the other. But, according to that: "In BrE, collective nouns can take either singular (formal agreement) or plural (notional agreement) verb forms, according to whether the emphasis is, respectively, on the body as a whole or on the individual members". So, talking about the audience as a whole: is. Talking about the audience members: are. Or something.

[glitterfairy25.livejournal.com]

I think that answers my ponderance, like, EXACTLY. What happens with AmE then? :S

[marah-sarie.livejournal.com]

American English would be more likely to stick with singular, I think. Take your example a couple comments up -- in American English you would definitely say "the audience was very lively tonight" instead of "the audience were very lively tonight." That sounds very wrong to my American ear, even though it's definitely correct in British English.

[glitterfairy25.livejournal.com]

That's really strange, I never knew it wasn't just a subtle difference but a American English/British English one too!
IN CONCLUSION: English is weird.