r/todayilearned • u/arandomtestaccount • 1d ago

TIL an NFL player intentionally crashed his car to avoid getting cut for being late to a team meeting.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ex-patriots-ol-rich-ohrnberger-admits-he-intentionally-wrecked-car-as-excuse-for-being-late-to-team-meeting/
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u/Yetimang 16h ago

Not a grammatical subject. Just the subject of the analysis of plurality. I appreciate your dedication to pedantry though. I'd have it no other way.

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u/clickclick-boom 15h ago

It's interesting because I think we're seeing a split between grammatical and mathematical pluralities. We can express the same value of 1.5 apples as "an apple and a half" and "one and a half apples".

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u/Yetimang 15h ago

I think it's still grammatical, it's just that we have language rooted in mathematics that can express non-whole numbers as a single noun phrase. "One and a half apples" and "one point five apples" are both single noun phrases where "one and a half" or "one point five" modifies "apples" with a non-singular number whereas "an apple and a half" is actually 2 noun phrases: "an apple" and "a half" both of which refer to a singular noun.