team: singular vs. plural

owosso · Post by **owosso** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:09 pm

I'm doing a brochure with the following bulleted copy:

Our team of experienced professionals:
-Knows and believes in Jesus with our whole heart: all glory is given to him!

Team is singular, correct? So "Knows" and "Believes" is correct? But what about "our whole heart," should the word "our" also be a singular "it?" As in:

Our team of experienced professionals:
Knows and believes in Jesus with its whole heart: all glory is given to him!

That just doesn't sound correct - let alone warm and personal, which the client is wishing to portray.

kagriffy · Post by **kagriffy** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:00 pm

Both ways sound awkward to me. I would suggest re-wording it slightly to avoid the singular/plural issue with "team." How about something like this:

The experienced professionals on our team:
-Know and believe . . . with their whole hearts . . . !

That gets the general idea across and emphasizes the "warm and personal" aspect (by discussing the beliefs of the individual professionals rather than some amorphous "team").

Post by **Phil White** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 11:03 pm

Use the search function on the site any look for synesis. You'll find several useful discussions of the singular/plural issue, even if they do digress in some very strange ways. Synesis is more common in the UK, though.

K. Allen's suggestion is good. Otherwise you could try "wholeheartedly", whichever way you go with the singular/plural issue.

jackster · Post by **jackster** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:57 am

Maybe you could say "with all our hearts".

jackster · Post by **jackster** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 5:07 am

jackster wrote: Maybe you could say "with all their heart". It may sound better.

Erik_Kowal · Post by **Erik_Kowal** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:51 am

The main thing is to avoid referring to our souls.

paulwiggins · Post by **paulwiggins** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:53 am

[
That just doesn't sound correct - let alone warm and personal, which the client is wishing to portray.

Exactly so. Treat the team as a plural in this instance. This link should help resolve your dilemma: http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/020.html

tony h · Post by **tony h** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:09 pm

Our team of experienced professionals: Knows and believes in Jesus with our whole heart

The problem for me with the phrase is that it seems to suggest that between the team they can only muster one whole heart.

I would go for : Our team of experienced professionals knows and believes in Jesus with the whole of their hearts
or ... each one wholeheartedly

regards