Singular vs. plural for a noun that is associated to a plural number of another noun

Question

Our team has prepared five technical reports that we are going to present to a review committee tomorrow. Each report is very long (about 20 pages). I want to communicate to my colleagues that we should prepare a one-liner description for each report. Here are the two alternative sentences I have.

Alternative 1:

I need one-liner descriptions for all five reports we are going to present tomorrow.

Alternative 2:

I need one-liner description for all five reports we are going to present tomorrow.

The difference in the two alternatives is the usage of the word "descriptions" vs. "description". Is singular-form the right choice for a sentence like this, or should I use the plural-form?

Note: The above specific scenario and sentence is a scenario I have cooked up to demonstrate my problem. I am interested to understand the singular vs. plural not just for this sentence but in general for any sentences like these which contain a phrase of the form "<noun1> of <noun2>" where "<noun2>" is plural and I need to decide if "<noun1>" should be written in singular or plural form?

grammar grammatical number verb agreement

zinu · Answer

You should use 'Alternative 1' if you need a description for each report, which is what you wanted.
Only use the other one if you need a description for the five reports, as a whole.
I shall explain.
In 'Alternative 1', you said you needed 'one-liner descriptions for all five reports'. This means that you need more than one description for the five reports.
In 'Alternative 2', you said you needed 'one-liner description for all five reports'. This means that you only need one description for the five reports.
I was just checking back on this post and saw Edwin Ashworth's comment:
"I need a one-line description for each of the five reports we are going to present tomorrow."
I suggest you use his suggestion as it is more clear and direct.

Kevin · Answer

The least ambiguous way to say this would be:

I need a one-liner description for each of the five reports we are going to present tomorrow.

Singular vs. plural for a noun that is associated to a plural number of another noun

2 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question