Proper plural/singular correspondence

March 1, 2022 7:08 AM

Would it be more correct to say, "this is done by executives when carrying their briefcases" or "this is done by executives when carrying their briefcase"? Or is it effectively a pick and choose situation?

On the one hand, each executive carries only one briefcase, which would argue for the singular form. On the other hand, the singular form sounds strange to my ears and could be interpreted to imply that the executives are collectively carrying a single briefcase.

Kindly assume that the sentence structure cannot otherwise change. My question concerns only the singular/plural form of "briefcase."

posted by slkinsey to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

If the execs have one briefcase among them (maybe carrying the Maltese Falcon?), then "their briefcase." If each exec has a briefcase, then "their briefcases."
posted by humbug at 7:10 AM on March 1, 2022 [7 favorites]

I'd vote for "...when they carry briefcases." If you want to use singular, I think "...when they carry a briefcase" is acceptable.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:17 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Agree with humbug. But also it might be clearer & more natural to get rid of the possessive pronoun: "this is done by executives when carrying a briefcase." (I believe that keeps the same sentence structure, though if the surrounding context focuses on whose briefcases are whose then this might not work for you.)
posted by miles per flower at 7:18 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

CMOS 17 5.32:

A collective noun takes a singular pronoun if the members are treated as a unit {the audience showed its appreciation} but a plural if they act individually {the audience rushed back to their seats}.

posted by zamboni at 7:25 AM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Except it's not a collective noun, is it? Hmm.
posted by zamboni at 7:26 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yes, the singular would mean that the entire group has one briefcase among them. If they each have their own briefcase, you’d pluralize it in that sentence.
posted by decathecting at 7:57 AM on March 1, 2022

Zamboni, the question your link answers is about whether the possessive pronoun should be plural or singular. The question here is about whether the noun itself should be plural or singular and the answer depends on whether it’s one or more than one item being possessed by the group of people.
posted by decathecting at 7:58 AM on March 1, 2022

The real problem here is that the original sentence is awkward and clunky, so both the original and all the variations sound awkward and clunky too.

Also, I for one have no idea what sort of action would be routinely performed by executives with their briefcases.

I'd suggest: "An executive does this when carrying a briefcase." Or, "executives do this when carrying briefcases."

Also, nthing the first three answers.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:18 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

When carrying briefcases, executives do X
posted by heathrowga at 10:16 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers. The above was generic language illustrating my question, but it was a clunky sentence nevertheless and miles per flower's suggestion made it much better.
posted by slkinsey at 11:57 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]