study or studies

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muh - 07 Jan 2004 23:42 GMT

Is it
I have two lovely sisters, who(?) studies at the university.
or
I have two lovely sisters, who(?) study at the university.

...why?

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mUs1Ka - 08 Jan 2004 00:00 GMT

> Is it
> I have two lovely sisters, who(?) studies at the university.
> or
> I have two lovely sisters, who(?) study at the university.
>
> ...why?

I have one lovely sister who studies at (the) university.

I have two lovely sisters who study at (the) university.

m.

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Robert Lieblich - 08 Jan 2004 02:22 GMT

> > Is it
> > I have two lovely sisters, who(?) studies at the university.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> I have two lovely sisters who study at (the) university.

And the reason is: "Who" the relative pronoun can be either
singular or plural, depending on the grammatical number of its
antecedent. In mUslKa's two sentences, the antecendent of "who" is
"sister" in the first and "sisters" in the second. The antecedent
of "who" in the first sentence is singular, so "who" is singular, so
the verb is singular. In the second all are plural.

Note my careful eschewing of such a snotty remark as "I have no idea
why you have two lovely sisters studying at the university."

Signature

Bob Lieblich
Who hath no sisters, at university or otherwise

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Adrian Bailey - 08 Jan 2004 02:48 GMT

> I have two lovely sisters, who study at the university.

Because sisters study. "Who" can refer to a singular or plural noun. Here it
refers to "sisters".

Adrian

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

study or studies