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    "administration" -- plural or singular?

    6­ Replies
    Topic

    "administration" -- plural or singular?

    Comment
    "The administration—White House, Department of State, Department of Defense—possess the greatest strength and independence to move their thoughts into general circulation."

    As "the administration" of a state consists of a multitude of departments and people, it would make sense to use the plural forms, like in "The police have caught the burglar." However, I rather feel that the singular would be more appropriate:

    "The administration [...] POSSESSES the greatest strength and independence to move ITS thoughts into general circulation."

    Or is it even a combination of both?

    "The administration [...] POSSESSES the greatest strength and independence to move THEIR thoughts into general circulation."

    The more I think about it, the more confused I get. Could anyone clear things up, please?

    AuthorPi-C (821282) 20 Sep 11, 12:23
    Comment
    I would say it is singular, at least eg "the Bush administration has done this and that" is a very common expression, compared to a plural form that more often than not has a completely different meaning, as in "members of the Bush administration have said that..."
    #1Author Ben (.ch) (320541) 20 Sep 11, 12:45
    Comment
    It can be both.
    Singular if it refers to a single administration: "the Bush administration was..." Plural if more than one "Many presidential administrations were..."
    #2Author Bill (US) (236753) 20 Sep 11, 13:07
    Comment
    The Administration - in the sense of the executive branch of government - is usually singular.
    #3Author SD3 (451227) 20 Sep 11, 13:30
    Comment
    Soweit ich weiß, gibt es da einen Unterschied zwischen BE und AE. Während im AE Verben im Zusammenhang mit "Group Nouns" fast ausschließlich im Singular verwendet werden, ist im BE sowohl der Singular als auch der Plural gebräuchlich, abhängig davon, ob die Gruppe als Einheit (Singular) oder als Ansammlung von Individuen (Plural) betrachtet wird.
    #4Author DeepThought74 (201178) 20 Sep 11, 13:43
    Comment
    Here it's "is" i.e. singular. Bill (US) refers to "administrations" which must be in the plural.

    DeepThought74 - this isn't the same as a team where you can be talking about the group of individual players or the team as one unit. For me the division into different departments for the administration isn't linguistically obvious enough for a plural to be able to be used here.
    #5AuthorMe (GB) (745809) 20 Sep 11, 15:45
    Comment
    As the overall opinion seems to confirm me in my feeling that the singular form is, indeed, the correct one (the original sentence was from a text I've been asked to edit), I changed the sentence accordingly. Thanks to all for your input and help! :-)
    #6AuthorPi-C (821282) 20 Sep 11, 16:22
     
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