Each

 

“Each” is a weird word. Sometimes it’s definitely singular: “Each is able to decide for himself.” But other times, it’s not so clear: “A number of families will participate and each have their own priorities.”

In the first example, the verb that follows is “is,” which is a singular conjugation suggesting that the pronoun itself is being thought of as singular. But in the second example, we have the plural verb form “have,” suggesting that this instance of “each” is thought of as plural.

So what’s the deal? Well, there’s no rule saying when you should treat “each” as singular or plural in every instance. But there are some patterns you can take your cue from.

For example, when “each” stands all by itself in a sentence, it’s usually singular, as in “Each is able to decide.” But when it’s followed by “of,” you have to go with your gut. That’s because the noun that follows “of” is always plural: “each of them,” “each of my cats,” “each of the senators,” and so on. That casts a strong flavor of the plural onto the whole the noun phrase. “Each of them are equipped to step in and help” sounds no worse than “Each of them is equipped to step in and help.”

So in these cases, you can usually conjugate your verb in whatever way sounds most natural to you.

But when in doubt, treat “each” as singular. That’s usually the safest bet. And when you consider that a lot of people out there are under the misperception that “each” is exclusively singular, it makes this choice all the safer.

 

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2014 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.