Andy Capp by Reg Smythe for October 31, 2015

Well played, Chalkie. Well played (You too, Andy.)

It’s not the first time that someone has been done in by a speaker phone setting………..

@beviek

It appears the Great Pumpkin might not be everything he believes

Considering that they are English, shouldn’t they be using proper English? “How many times has Brazil won”…not ‘have’ won.

I haven’t commented here in a long time.Andy is still high in my queue. Got tired of the trolls. Are they still here in abundance?

Happy Halloween everyone. Play safe!

Happy Halloween or All Hallows Day Cappers!

I’m not sure of the rules, but I’ve noticed before that the English and American uses of singular and plural are quite different. In this case, we Colonials would say “Brazil has won” because we consider Brazil, the country, as a single entity. It seems the Brits say “have” as they consider Brazil to be composed of many, so they use the plural.

If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’!

Rather ironic of you to say that, bookworm0812, inasmuch as you used “the” instead of “they” and “they’re” instead of “their.” And as Sandfan pointed out, the use of “have” is grammatically correct because the mindset in Britain is to think of the Brazilian team members as individuals, not as a single unit as we would do here in the States. The rule is that when members of a group are considered to have acted separately, the plural verb is required. The singular is only correct if the team members are considered to have acted together as a single unit.

Brit usage of plural verbs for plural entities does make a certain amount of sense, but on the whole I prefer to speak American.British: "The audience were bemused by the performance.’American: “The crowd pelted the band with rocks and garbage.”

@Mai GriffinI never claimed anybody was uneducated, British or American, just pointing out one of many differences.

That’s why I put my phone on vibrate in an environment like that.

it’s ‘have’. English people use it the same way as in “how many times HAVE the NY Yankees won the World Series?” They’re speaking of Brazil the National Soccer Team, not the country.