lives
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Without context, it's impossible to answer your question. Please post a full sentence using each phrase and then we can comment. After 1,034 posts, surely you know better than to just post a few words and ask such a question!
Taka
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If you want context, what about this?
In countries with an average per-capita income of $2,000 or lower, some 95% said religion was important in their daily life...Italy and Greece had higher numbers of people who felt religion to be important to their daily lives, at 72% and 71% respectively, while in the US, the figure was 65%.
It's from the same news article. Why is the first one 'their life' whereas the second one is 'their lives'? Are they interchangeable?
In countries with an average per-capita income of $2,000 or lower, some 95% said religion was important in their daily life...Italy and Greece had higher numbers of people who felt religion to be important to their daily lives, at 72% and 71% respectively, while in the US, the figure was 65%.
It's from the same news article. Why is the first one 'their life' whereas the second one is 'their lives'? Are they interchangeable?
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The reason I didn't answer your question was because it's impossible to do so without context.
Barb_D
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It's illogical for an author to use "life" in one sentence and "lives" in the next, when the sentences are essentially the same.
If you search on "distributed plurals" you'll find a lot of comment on this. Each of us has one life, and only one life, so no confusion will result, no matter which one you use. However, you should use the same one!
If you search on "distributed plurals" you'll find a lot of comment on this. Each of us has one life, and only one life, so no confusion will result, no matter which one you use. However, you should use the same one!
Taka
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If I asked you a question like 'What is the difference between men and women?', I don't think you would say 'I can't answer the question without context'. But if my question was something like 'What is the difference between reddish and red', I wouldn't be surprised if you asked for context.
In order to know if the meaning is clearly different or not, if the meaning is context-dependent or not, I think sometimes it's better to see the words themselves.
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Taka
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Thanks for the great answer, Barb!
(So it's the same distributive plural/singular thing again. I've asked this kind of questions before, I think).
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