Facebook has launched a Media page offering “best practices for journalists”. It’s a rather breathless creation, filled with ad-speak, but if you can put up with that it’s a pretty useful resource providing both a basic introduction to how the site can be used by journalists, through to tips and case studies for those who already use Facebook.
Although the page promotes Facebook’s own ‘Posts by everyone’ search facility that allows you to track the buzz around a particular topic, Openbook is better.
For more links on Facebook, see my Delicious bookmarks under that tag.
“Facebook have launched . . . .”
Sigh.
“Facebook has launched . . . .”
Until you are grammatically plural, you are singular.
Thanks – it seems I stand corrected. But you US guys should still say “England have” when talking about the football team
From Wikipedia (which I believe to be right in this instance)”
“The difference occurs for all nouns of multitude, both general terms such as team and company and proper nouns (for example, where a place name is used to refer to a sports team). For instance,
BrE: The Clash are a well-known band; AmE: The Clash is a well-known band.
BrE: Spain are the champions; AmE: Spain is the champion.
Proper nouns that are plural in form take a plural verb in both AmE and BrE; for example, The Beatles are a well-known band; The Saints are the champions.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences#Formal_and_notional_agreement
First, I feel I should have sent a note, not made a comment; however, having made the comment and looked over the responses, perhaps this reminder will suffice to close the issue while keeping quite alive the enthusiasms and pleasures afforded by our language: our understanding of grammar derives from observation of a quite alive, lively, and evolving phenomenon, not design.
We simple Yanks in the 1960′s got an elementary rule in case separated from any underlying sensibility having to do with the noun involved. The effect involved, and this may be especially so for those of us tuned often to the music of the language, is that of jarring the ear. Although Facebook, the organization, may contain many elements, “Facebook have” sounds strange to this ear.
Frankly, I’ve had a problem with “whilst” as well, but may agree here that such is my problem, not yours. –Jim
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