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Referring to teams in the plural
Posted by: Kevin on March 30th, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Just a quick question for Jazz fans………
Ya know when people talk about teams in the league and they say “L.A’s, Boston’s, Miami’s,….”
Am I the only one who thinks it’s redundant to speak in the plural form if you are going to mention every time in that category? For example……if I am referring to the Elite teams, I might say…”The Jazz will struggle against the elites like the Boston’s”
But what’s the point of listing all the elite teams, if you are throwing that plural in?
I know this is off topic, and I should probably be posting about the Draft and Kemba Walker and Brandon Knight, and whether or not Jimmer will be a star. But this has always been a little pet peeve of mine and I was just wondering if anyone else was on the same wavelength.
Replies: 8
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8 Responses
I think they are just shortening the name of the team, so instead of saying the Boston Celtics or the Chicago Bulls they say the Bostons, the Chicagos, and I don’t like it either. As an aside Boston’s is not plural, it is possesive.
ZZ’s work like a “s” at the end of a word.
I had to read that a few times to figure out what you were getting at. You need to get rid of the apostrophes and it will make sense. And no, its not redundant when they do it and no they are not just shortening the team name. Used in context: “The team may be able to beat the sub-par teams, but when they play the Bostons and Chicagos of the league, they play poorly.” No it’s not redundant. They are using one team to represent all of the other teams that are similar to that one team to generalize things. It makes things simpler and easier. I use that type of phrasing quite a bit myself.
Yeah, I see what you’re getting at. I’ve also thought this is kind of annoying, the Bostons and Chicagos of the league are…. Boston, and Chicago. Another pet peeve of mine has always been adding ‘a’ before a player’s name. For example, “If this team can move up in the draft and get a derrick williams or a kyrie irving.” Just say the player you’re thinking of without a.
“Jazz is”
@JC…I refuse to say “Jazz is.” Grammatically correct? Yes. But I’m wedded to “Jazz are” like “I hope the Jazz are going to win some more games before this season is over.”
Thank you Kaleb! That’s EXACTLY what I wanted to say, but couldn’t think of how to say it. And @Adam….let me clarify, If someone says “the chicagos….” and then that’s it, then yes. I can see how that covers all the teams that are similar. But my point, is if they are going to name every single team in that category, what’s the point of putting the ‘S’ at the end?
Like Kaleb said, you might as well just say who you are thinking about.
James, I would say “I hope the Jazz will win some more games this year” (less words)