a wolf angel is not a good angel

7 Responses to “Grammar nazis, unite”

1. oliviacw Says:
   August 14th, 2006 at 1:30 pm

   I would go with the first (fit). Somehow the two different kinds of experience turn it into a plural noun for me.

2. shrinkykitten Says:
   August 14th, 2006 at 3:21 pm

   I would just make experience plural and make it:
   My academic and work experiences fit very well with the qualifications.

3. plam Says:
   August 14th, 2006 at 5:09 pm

   I’d say that experience should remain singular, but ‘fit’ should be without the s. It is a plural noun.

4. profgrrrrl Says:
   August 14th, 2006 at 5:49 pm

   I like “fit” but I’m probably wrong.

5. Cougar Allen Says:
   August 14th, 2006 at 5:51 pm

   What if she said “experiences”? Then it really would be plural. :>

6. StyleyGeek Says:
   August 14th, 2006 at 6:08 pm

   There is no incorrect grammar :) Both are right if they’re what people say, who do you think writes the dictionaries and grammars? etc etc etc [insert further indoctrination here]. :)

   Seriously, though, I think you could make an argument for either. If you say that ‘academic’ and ‘work’ are adjectives modifying ‘experience’, then you have to have ‘fits’ because experience, whether ’semantically plural’ or not, is in the singular.

   But, you could argue that it is actually ‘academic experience and work experience’ and that the first experience has been elided. Like if we had had two icecreams each, and I said, “Your first and my second icecream were the best.”

   Actually, the real problem is that if you write this on an application, there might be a grammar nazi who reads it. And any grammar nazi who REALLY cares (i.e enough to disregard you as a candidate due to grammar mistakes) is likely to believe it should be ‘… experience fits’. So make it that. Or change it to experiences.

7. shelly Says:
   August 14th, 2006 at 7:42 pm

   You have one subject: experience so it’s “experience fits” even though you have two adjectives.

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