Esteemed Colleagues!

[Hawk]

I'm working on a new web site and a comment was made that I don't know Proper English.
The sentence in question is on the main page of the site, at this link: http://bandblawnmower.com/
It's the third paragraph down. It currently says

"B & B Lawnmower are proud dealers of the following products:"

I was told it should read:

"B & B Lawnmower is a proud dealer of the following products:"

Which way is right?

[WPandP]

"B and B Lawnmower" is a singular entity, thus "is" is correct. If you were talking about the multiple owners or staff or whatnot, for example "Bob and Bernie of B and B Lawnmower" then your subject would be plural, thus "are" would be correct. But as written, the name refers to a singular entity, the company that has that name.

[Hawk]

WP.
Never having made it past 8th grade, I guess I am a little lacking in the proper ways of the English language.

[Grandma Ruth]

WP &P is right (sorry, are right!) but this is a usage which is changing and will soon be acceptable. At work we use the phrase "my staff are ..." (wonderful, kind, caring, efficient ... you get the drift!) which is, strictly speaking, wrong because "my staff" is singular.
I think your usage flows much more easily and seems more natural. One thing to consider is that speech is always in advance of writing, and people read websites more like speech. I haven't expressed that very well - I mean people skip over websites and don't read every word as you might if you were reading a book or a newspaper.
How about "B & B Lawnmower: proud dealer in these products:"
By the way - one of the things I'm doing in my retirement is just this very kind of thing. SPAM SPAM SPAM Look at the "Word Online" pages.

[Blackhawk]

I hope it doesn't become common to replace is with are in situations like these. Having the verb and noun agree seems like one of the more fundamental concepts of grammar, if you can use a singular noun with a plural verb it seems to degrade one of the fundamentals of the language. Although with the rise in text messaging and instant messaging I can only wonder what the language will look like in the future. A few years ago back when I was proof-reading fellow college colleagues rough drafts for a paper, I was shocked to see what they considered quality writing. While they thought it was a good paper, I thought it seemed middle school student wrote it. One of the most common errors I saw was that people often use loose when they mean lose (if it is not tight it is loose, if you don't win, you lose). I also proof-read the paper of a future pharmacist which she wrote at 3am and she resorted to bad internet habits in her paper unintentionally as she was stressed and extremely tired. One example: words that should have ended in "s" ended in "z" (skills = skillz) I suppose in the future we'll have "research" papers written with wikipedia as the primary source and to make a word plural we'll use a z, and my will be mah, hi will be hai, boy = boi, the = the, girl = gurl, and of course cool could be kool, kewl, or coo. *steps off soapbox*

[Wolverine@MSU]

So when playing Euchre, Bridge, Pinochle etc. is it "Spades are trump" or "Spades is trump"?

[Hawk]

By the way - one of the things I'm doing in my retirement is just this very kind of thing. SPAM SPAM SPAM Look at the "Word Online" pages.

So-you're doing other peoples work for them; creating their presentations and such for them?

[WPandP]

So when playing Euchre, Bridge, Pinochle etc. is it "Spades are trump" or "Spades is trump"?

"Spades", I would say, is plural, as it refers to a bunch of cards in the deck. The intention is to indicate that all of those cards have this "trump" quality. So, "Spades are trump"... just add one more word and I think it becomes more obvious: "Spades are trump cards". You'd sound foolish to say that "Spades is trump cards".

EDIT: But if one's intention is to indicate the singular trump suit, as in "Spades is the trump suit" then singular would be correct. So I guess the problem comes up because the sentence is truncated, when you don't indicate whether you're talking about the cards or the suit.

[nedfumpkin]

Spades are spades and shovels are shovels!

[WPandP]

Spades are spades and shovels are shovels!

Ahem.

Spades is spades. (Spades is a singular suit)

[nedfumpkin]

Ahem birthday boy...spades are British shovels. :)

[WPandP]

So why are you calling a spade a spade, when it's a shovel?

(how far off topic do you think we can take this?)

[Hawk]

Well, you have a spade shovel (garden spade) drain shovel (spade) ditching spade (shovel) and a round point shovel and a square point shovel.
Then of course there is (are) the snow shovel, horse manure shovel (which is probably the same as a snow shovel), coal shovel, & roofing shovel.

Let's not forget the shovelnose ray, shovelnose sturgeon, shovelnose guitarfish, shovelnose catfish...

Is/Are that far enough for ya'?

[AZ Rail Rat]

28 years ago, I couldn't spell en-ga-neer . . . now I ARE one!

[Grandma Ruth]

Boy, I've missed you guys! I'm
Sorry for the spam,Hawk, but I don't think anybody on this forum is going to need my services:

So-you're doing other peoples work for them; creating their presentations and such for them?

It's really for small businesses or voluntary groups who have to do an annual report or a funding bid or whatever once a flood and it's not worth their while to employ somebody full-time to do the IT. This is only a sideline -wait till you see my main retirement occupation, you'll never speak to me again! Here it is: Snake Oil for Sale, Cures All your Ills You didn't know you had a New Age, hippy-trippy entrail reader on board, did you?

[Hawk]

Ah! Now you're doing the 'Life Counseling' routine. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you don't steer people over the cliff.

[Grandma Ruth]

I'll try not to!

[Jancsika]

When I misbehaved, my mother just spanked me, (it really never hurt) (neither was my self esteem bruised), and that cured me.
Jancsika

[Stoker]

Happy Birthday Hawk!

[Hawk]

Thank you kind sir!