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Why Moving Sucks – Part A
December 2, 2005
That's right. You heard me.
About Sarah
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on the upside we will be paid for our troubles.
God. I hated showing our house. Eventually I stayed at home or went out in the yard. I just couldn’t leave every single time. And the kids took a lot of naps in the car when I did, which meant for horrible nap days. It will all be over soon. Hang in there.
Yes, and I meant to add at the end that we only listed the house on Monday and I’m thrilled that we are getting this much traffic, but I had to leave the house.
This is why it doesn’t pay to buy a house. I don’t care how much money you make off the deal, I’d rather rent for the rest of my life, be able to call the landlord when something doesn’t work, and simply move my stuff and forfeit the deposit when I’m ready to leave.
See? You’re not supposed to go. When will you get that?
I can’t believe I can’t just buy your house. Alas the blue of not being able to close when you need me to…..some stupid lover of “Bushes full of Snakes” is going to buy the house that was supposed to be mine!
- Bridgette
I’m NEVER moving! Good thing I like my house!
We are thinking of moving after the winter and are trying to get all those little things done; painting, touching up, replacing broken things… Then I will be in your shoes, except here the owners should not be there when the house is being shown. I guess I will have to be making many trips into town to vacate the house. Main reason I will not sell the house in winter!
We moved into a new apartment in a new town earlier this year so I know how much work it is. Of course we were renting then and are renting now, don’t have kids and probably a thousand things less to take care of. Hm, I guess I not only don’t know how much work it is, I actually have absolutely no clue.
Nonetheless, I can solve one of your problems, which I’m sure has bothered you to no avail:
The only time The Goon Squad isn’t (aren’t?) busy trashing the house is when they are sleeping.
In fact both the plural and singular form of the word are correct here. It is, however, chiefly British English that uses singular verb forms with group nouns. For example, where an American would be likely to say “The government is doing everything right”, a British speaker might say “The government are doing a marvellous job”. This is explained by a British speaker thinking of the individual members the group consists of, the government in this case, while the American speaker sees it as one entity.
As with most of these differences, this is not an absolute, but a tendency that might be more prominent in some local dialects than others, and I don’t know what speakers of other varieties of English are more likely to use. Also, I learned this quite some time ago in some class I took, so the information might not be accurate.
There is NOTHING I hate more about selling a house (3 time veteran here) than getting it all ready and having people NOT SHOW UP!
It is, however, chiefly British English that uses singular verb forms with group nouns.
And that would be American English that uses the singular verb forms more prominently in these cases. British English uses the plural form. If you have to be a smartass, try to get it right.