Barney & Clyde by Gene Weingarten; Dan Weingarten & David Clark for September 26, 2013

When you’re listening late at nightYou may think the band are not quite rightBut they are, They just play it like that

Quite right, actually.

Americans say “thanks.” Brits say “Thank you very much, indeed”.

Notice where I put the period relative to the quotation mark, both correct in America.

Army am?

I is Army Strong.

Will they arm me in the army?

The real point is that either is understandable and clear — and therefore being nitpicky about the rule doesn’t make much sense. Similarly, who and whom — the use of the wrong one doesn’t create confusion.

For confusion, you have the English use of adjectives ahead of nouns without any modifiers. Consider oatmeal cookies, made with oatmeal, and Girl Scout cookies, not made with Girl Scouts. It would be clearer if we said “cookies with oatmeal” and “cookies from Girl Scouts”.

On the whole, though, any language where nouns don’t have masculine and feminine isn’t so bad.

Or: “Both are correct.”

I’m English and I would never say “the army are strong”!

I hadn’t come across “the army are strong,” but I have heard “the crowd are restless” on BBC.

Both are correct.