Comment on Is lemmy now what reddit used to be 10+ years ago?
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 weeks agoContext.
Here it’s being used a singular group of things.
Like, a herd of cows is a singular thing made up of lots of individual things.
If you lost 50% of the herd, you wouldn’t say you had fewer herd
You’d say you have less of a herd.
But language is what we make it, it’s why the rules are blurry
Here it’s being used a singular group of things
It’s not singular. users is plural. “A group of users” is singular, but users is referring to multiple individuals. The correct verb to use with users is are.
For example, you would be incorrect to say “There is users online”, but you could say “There is a group of users online”.
KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 4 weeks ago
Your argument is supporting the comment you’re replying to. “Users” is equivalent to “cows” in your example, not “herd”. If you lost 50% of the herd, you’d still have a herd of cows, but you’d have fewer cows, just like there are a lot fewer users in this instance.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
“users” is a singular group in this context.
KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 4 weeks ago
It’s not, but even if it was, the original comment would be grammatically incorrect.You wouldn’t say “You have a lot less herd”. “Less of a herd” would work, “Your herd is a lot smaller” would work better, but it was written originally as though ‘users’ was a collection of individuals, not a userbase as a singular item.
deranger@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
“There are a lot fewer users” is the proper grammar. You wouldn’t say “There is users online”, you’d say “There are users online” because users is plural. “There is a user online” would be singular.
xmunk@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Both may be correct depending on the speaker. English has exceptions to everything… I learned that from a European.