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Is the word "lead" in this sentence plural or singular

 
 
CRob
 
Reply Sat 21 Sep, 2013 04:05 pm
Currently we have 57 English leads and 1 Spanish lead in the task tracker.

I wrote this sentence and someone told me that I needed to use leads after Spanish because otherwise it negates having multiple leads (in reference to the English leads).
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InfraBlue
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 Sep, 2013 05:12 pm
@CRob,
In your sentence, "lead" refers specifically to that of the Spanish, which is one instance thereof.

If you wanted to refer to all of the English and Spanish leads together you might have written, "currently we have 57 English and 1 Spanish leads in the task tracker."
contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 Sep, 2013 05:22 pm
@CRob,
CRob wrote:
someone told me that I needed to use leads after Spanish because otherwise it negates having multiple leads (in reference to the English leads).

No. 57 leads are a plural quantity; 1 is singular. you would never write "1 leads". However, fluent native speakers are likely to avoid the "leads... lead" repetition by omitting the second "lead":

Currently we have 57 English leads and 1 Spanish in the task tracker. ("Lead" is implied after "Spanish".)

Currently I have three red cars and one blue. ("Car" is implied after "blue".)

... or by doing this:

Currently we have 58 leads in the task tracker: 57 English and 1 Spanish.

Currently I have four cars: three red and one blue.

It is better to write numbers, amounts, etc in words in prose - three cars, ten tons, six years.





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contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 Sep, 2013 05:24 pm
@InfraBlue,
InfraBlue wrote:
If you wanted to refer to all of the English and Spanish leads together you might have written, "currently we have 57 English and 1 Spanish leads in the task tracker."


It would be "57 English and 1 Spanish lead".
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contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sun 22 Sep, 2013 02:05 am
You can have both nouns (plural and singular):

Fifty-seven English leads and one Spanish lead.

You can omit the plural noun and imply the singular one:

Fifty-seven English leads and one Spanish.

Or vice-versa:

One Spanish and fifty-seven English leads.
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