From my community newspaper:
"Over the past 18 months, the safety and well-being of neighborhoods surrounding the airport has become a serious concern."
I have a serious concern about this: there is more than one concern in the sentence:
the safety of neighborhoods
the well-being of neighborhoods
Therefore, we need to pluralize everything:
the verb "has become" (should be "have become")
"a serious concern" (should be "serious concerns")
Here's the rewrite:
"Over the past 18 months, the safety and well-being of neighborhoods surrounding the airport have become serious concerns."
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4 comments:
You have such a gift.
How about this headline from FoxNews about the gym murderer.
"Pennsylvania police say gunman who invaded health club and killed three long had targeted aerobics class"
http://www.foxnews.com/
I think you are arguably wrong about this. Although "safety and well-being" is expressed grsmatically as a compound of two entities, it substantively expresses a single concept. So it is a collective.
"Country Joe and the Fish was a popular act at Woodstock."
Perhaps... Though, if safety and well-being mean the same thing, why would you want to repeat yourself? Maybe just "safety" should appear.
Thanks for your comment.
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