Acts 2:6

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Wed Dec 29 08:31:34 EST 1999


To: David R. Mills,

<< Why is the verb plural in the following clause when the subject is 
singular?
hOTI HKOUON hEIS hEKASTOS THi IDIAi DIALEKTWi >>

This is not uncommon. A noun in the singular may denote a number of persons 
or things (such as OCLOS, PLHQOS, OIKIA, LAOS, etc), these are known as a 
"collective singular."  With such collective substantives, the verb may or 
may not be in the plural.

For example: HKOLOUQEI DE AUTWi OCLOS POLUS, hOTI EQEWROUN "But a large 
crowd kept following him because they saw ..." (Jn 6:2). Here we have both 
a singular verb (HKOLOUQEI) and a plural verb (EQEWROUN) with the same 
collective singular subject! You can find more on this subject in most any 
reference grammar under the subject of "concord in number."

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Disclaimer: "I'm just a simple house-husband (with no post-grad degree), 
what do I know?"




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