On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 16:38:28 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

"Kalman Rubinson" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:45:40 -0500, msg wrote:

I am frustrated by the British (and Commenwealth?) usage
of company names as plural, as in 'Hewlett Packard _have_
good tech support" instead of "Hewlett Packard _has_ good
tech support". A 'company' is a singular noun.

Yes but a collective singular which is taken to represent a multitude.
I find this particular usage amusing and no stranger than employing
"the United States" as a singular.

I hate this. If one is referring to The United States as a country, then
"is" is correct, "are" is wrong. (The change, by the way, occurred after the
Civil War. The US was now "one" country.)

Of course. It was an attempt at a humorous analogy.

However, the "collective singular" is totally illogical. The singular is
"team", the plural "teams". So you say "The team is hoping to win", not "The
team are hoping to win". The subject and verb must agree, and this usage is
ungrammatical, plain and simple.

True. That is current American usage but, apparently, not British
usage.

Kal