[Grammar] subject-verb agreement with ()

[HowardJWilk]

I wrote the following online comment about a proposed project called "Viaduct Greene" :

"Greene (and Towne, and Olde, and Pointe) is for realtors."

Is "is" correct or should it be "are"? Do parenthetical comments count when considering subject-verb agreement?

 

[emsr2d2]

I wrote the following online comment about a proposed project called "Viaduct Greene" :

"Greene (and Towne, and Olde, and Pointe) is for realtors."

Is "is" correct or should it be "are"? Do parenthetical comments count when considering subject-verb agreement?

I would prefer "Greene (along with Towne, Olde and Pointe) is for realtors". I have no idea what it means though!

 

[HowardJWilk]

Thanks for your input. Developers use spellings like "towne" and words like "estates" to make it sound like their developments are hundreds of years old and are on land formerly (or still) occupied by old-money upper-crust types. There's also a joke that developments are named after the geographic features that had to be destroyed to build the developments.

 

[HowardJWilk]

Oh, now I see you're in the UK. Maybe that's not the practice in the UK. Here in the USA, developments are often named after places that are in the British Isles or sound like they are.

 

[emsr2d2]

But "Greene is for realtors" - does that mean that the houses in the development can only be bought by people whose profession is "realtor"? Does it mean that the development would be a good investment for a realtor?

 

[HowardJWilk]

Sorry. I should have written "developers" from the start, rather than "realtors". I'm referring to language that developers use to name their developments to make them sound more appealing to the buying public.

You can see this sort of thing going on in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. Good movie.

 

[5jj]

But "Greene is for realtors" - does that mean that the houses in the development can only be bought by people whose profession is "realtor"? Does it mean that the development would be a good investment for a realtor?

It's the word , or rather the spelling 'Greene', that is 'for' realtors or developers in the way that 'plump, luscious, hand-picked and individually selected' are the nauseatingly selected adjectives 'for' menu-writers when they wish to describe a spoonful of boiled frozen peas.

 

[HowardJWilk]

I'm new to this forum so please let me know if I'm cluttering it up with trivia. If so, I'll stop.

As you may know, pea is a back formation from pease, which was not plural but was taken to be.

I was speaking with my barber today, and, noting that pant for the item of clothing is common in the fashion industry but nowhere else, asked her if she had ever heard scissor or shear in her trade. She had not.

 

[Rover_KE]

I'm referring to language that developers use to name their developments to make them sound more appealing to the buying public.

That's right. It's common in the USA to see developments with such names as Crowne Pointe and Towne Shoppes.

 

[Raymott]

"Greene, like Towne, and Olde, and Pointe, is for developers."
"Greene -- like Towne, and Olde, and Pointe -- is for developers."
"Words like Greene, Towne, Olde, and Pointe are for developers."

 

[emsr2d2]

That's right. It's common in the USA to see developments with such names as Crowne Pointe and Towne Shoppes.

In the UK, an extra "e" is frequently added to the end of words, and spellings are changed, to make them look as if they are from a bygone age, in an effort to give them a history they do not have.

Christmas Fayre (instead of Fair)
Ye Olde Sweete Shoppe (The Old Sweet Shop or Candy Store)

In many cases, the words used didn't even exist at the time they are meant to represent.

 

[HowardJWilk]

To much of the English-speaking world it's the usual spelling, but here in the USA one can add "Centre" to the list.