English Language & Usage Asked on July 5, 2021
Basic education consists of more than 1 Grade. Therefore a group of grades forms basic education.
"Grades 1 to 6 are basic education" Which is true because we are not implying any one grade forms all the basic education for kids. (Any and all of the grades teach basic education).
However if we group the Grades does this not now change? If we use "Grades 1 to 6" or "Grade 1 to 6" to denote a part in the educational system. Then they would actually become the name of the group were are describing?
If we renamed the group to First Stage then we would write "The first Stage is basic education".
So, which of the following would be correct? I would suggest all three. The first two are groups and we make a statement about Basic education (it takes place in Grade 1 to 6), but the last is a reference to what the individual grades do.
To me the use of "is" sounds natural as well as correct, however this maybe some colloquial influence. I have failed to find any reference to the Noun Idiomatically applying to more than one thing remain in the singular for anything unless it relates to a person
Theodore Bernstein, in "Dos, Don’ts and Maybes of English Usage", says that
Idiomatically the noun applying to more than one person remains in the
singular when (a) it represents a quality or thing possessed in common
("The audience’s curiosity was aroused"); or (b) it is an abstraction
("The judges applied their reason to the problem"), or (c) it is a
figurative word ("All ten children had a sweet tooth") (203).
When you group many things together, either physically, logically or metaphorically and then name the group the group becomes a single item but the components remain plural.
For instance the vertebrae (plural) form the spine (singular) of an animal or human. Because of this we can say of someone who has had a serious accident "he has several crushed vertebrae" and "his spine is damaged" and be right on both counts.
However we would say "the vertebrae C1 to C8 are the neck area" not "C1 to C8 is the neck area". We would say "The top eight vertebrae, C1 to C8, form the cervical region which is the neck area" though because "the cervical region" is singular.
In my opinion in your example Grades 1 to 6 are individual units (if a child was gifted they might skip Grades 3 and 4 for example) but they would still be in "Basic Education". Because of this I would say that "Grades 1 to 6 are basic education." (That is analagous to saying "vertebrae C1 to C8 are the neck region"). I don't see that you can treat disparate items as a single one just because they are grouped. You have to use the group name, not the list of items in that group before you can use the singular.
Answered by BoldBen on July 5, 2021
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