The Young
The headline above (Straits Times Online, 13 September 2010) contains a subject�verb agreement error; make it S�pore young worry MM.
The relevant sense of young here is �young people considered as a group�, hence it is equivalent to (one of the senses of) youth and is a collective noun.
How could we find out the grammatical properties of a noun, or indeed of any other grammatical category? Here�s where a good learner�s dictionary comes in handy. The Oxford Advanced Learner�s Dictionary, for example, marks young as �[pl.]�, meaning that it is grammatically plural; accordingly, it should be followed by a plural verb.
Categories:
English as it is broken,
Grammar
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