Next dumb question....

[Short-Cross]

I wait while she rummages in her door pocket and digs out a packet of antiseptic wipes. She tosses it onto my lap.

I wait while she rummages in her door pocket and digs out a packet of antiseptic wipes. She tosses them onto my lap.


Which one d'you reckon? I suspect it should be 'it' as the object is the packet, but 'them' just sounds better (to my ear anyway...)

[Gyppo]

Strictly speaking packet is singular, so it's 'it'.

But I agree that 'them' feels better.

Reminds me of the classic question when learning 'Office Skills'.

Which is correct?  The next batch of invoices was prepared, or the next batch of invoices were prepared?

Batch is singular, despite being made up of several individual items.

Gyppo

[Short-Cross]

Hmm. Maybe 'it' is overly correct then?

[Jo Bannister]

I'm with Gyppo.  Either is fine, but "them" works better.  Sometimes, while acknowledging their skill, it's necessary to show the grammarians a yellow card.  Perfection is sometimes uncomfortably close to pedantry.

If someone challenges it, hit back with Churchill.  Someone typing out a speech for him amended a sentence which he'd ended (shock, horror) with a preposition.  He struck out the correction and wrote in the margin: "This is something up with which I will not put!"

ps: These are not dumb questions.  They concern the building-blocks of our language and our literature.  We should all be trying to get the components right.

[Mark Hoffmann]

I agree, go with "them".

Better for one pedant to think you lazy than a million readers to think you are the kind of person who wears cardigans with leather elbow patches.

[Short-Cross]

Them it is then!

Thanks all for the input.