TV series is singular?

Lance_in_Shanghai · Jan 4, 2010

Do we accept that a TV series is singular?

"My favorite TV series is..."

If so, what about:

My two favorite TV series [ is /are ] Bones and The Big Bang Theory."

benbradley · Jan 4, 2010

It looks to me you just demonstrated that series can be either singular or plural. The last one should be "are."

Mac H. · Jan 4, 2010

It seems that the word can be either.

It isn't surprising that the word is basically singular - just like 'list' or 'collection'.

'My favourite collection is ...' .

But since the word already ends in 'ies' it is reasonably common for it to be its own plural.

eg:

"My favourite species are ..."

Mac

RevisionIsTheKey · Jan 4, 2010

Mac H. said:
It seems that the word can be either.

It isn't surprising that the word is basically singular - just like 'list' or 'collection'.

'My favourite collection is ...' .

But since the word already ends in 'ies' it is reasonably common for it to be its own plural.

eg:

"My favourite species are ..."

Mac

Hmmm...Species can take either a singular or plural verb depending on the sentence. "This species of bird is almost extinct." "These species are not in danger of extinction."

Likewise you can say "My favorite species is" if mentioning one and "My favorite species are" if you are listing more than one. Maybe that is what you are saying above and I just got confused. The whole idea of someone having a favorite species threw me off.

Kalyke · Jan 6, 2010

It is a collective noun.

A TV series is a collection of several episodes. When you talk about the series you are talking about the collection of eposodes.

Lance_in_Shanghai · Jan 9, 2010

... and when you talk about two of them... is my question. I already know about one.

It seems we must accept series to serve as the plural of series. The top dog of U.S. dictionaries agrees:
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/series

LynnKHollander · Apr 1, 2010

Two TV series? Sounds fine to me.

shaldna · Apr 2, 2010

Lance_in_Shanghai said:
Do we accept that a TV series is singular?

Yes, because it is ONE series, and though it comprises several items, it is infact considered a whole thing. So, series, in this context is singluar.

"My favorite TV series [is] Bones

My two favorite TV series [ are ] Bones and The Big Bang Theory."

blacbird · Apr 2, 2010

Lance_in_Shanghai said:
... and when you talk about two of them... is my question. I already know about one.

It seems we must accept series to serve as the plural of series.

Absolutely correct. "Series" is one of those words that can be either singular or plural. English has a bunch of 'em, "species" already mentioned. Others include a number of animals:

moose
deer
fish (fishes is also correct, but used to refer to many different kinds of fish)

caw

Jamesaritchie · Apr 3, 2010

If it bothers you, use "show" or "program" rather than "series".

absitinvidia · Apr 3, 2010

blacbird said:
Absolutely correct. "Series" is one of those words that can be either singular or plural. English has a bunch of 'em, "species" already mentioned. Others include a number of animals:

moose
deer
fish (fishes is also correct, but used to refer to many different kinds of fish)

caw

Other words ending in "s" that can be singular or plural: biceps, triceps, and quadriceps. Although "bicep" is gaining in popularity as a back-formation, the singular of biceps is biceps. You can add "es" to form the plural (so bicepses), but it's not required.

TV series is singular?

Lance_in_Shanghai

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

Mac H.

Board Visitor

RevisionIsTheKey

Sigh...

Kalyke

Lance_in_Shanghai

LynnKHollander

This space intentionally left blank

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

blacbird

Jamesaritchie

absitinvidia

A bit of a wallflower