Buyer or Buyers

[cleung]

If I have only one house to sell, can I say the targeted buyers of my house are the new Chinese immigrant families? Or must I use the singular form to say the targeted buyer is.....? Thanks much for your help.

[Casiopea]

How many buyers do you have? If one, then buyer, if more than one, then buyers.

Does that help?

[cleung]

Not really. Here I am not saying how many buyers I will have because the house is not on the market as yet. That is why I want to use the term "targeted" buyer or buyers. Thanks anyway.

[Casiopea]

Targeted is an adjective, and it has nothing to do with whether or not the noun should be singular buyer or plural buyers. If you have just one potential family interested in buying the house, then use buyer. If you don't know how many buyers you will have, then stick with positive thinking and use plural buyers.

Now, according to your example sentence in post #1, you use the plural noun Chinese immigrant families, so use the plural referent buyers.

Does that help?

[cleung]

Yes, it does help. Thank you very much.