0

The text of the tweet displays "It's time the government shows it." The caption in the video is "It's time the government show it", which appears to be ungrammatical. So I wonder whether "It's time the government to show it" is also correct.

Edit: Some member has offered the information that "government" is always treated as singular in American English while British English treats it as either singular or plural. The information is useful, but it doesn't answer my question. Because my question is whether "to show" works there rather than a question of using singular or plural form of "show".

President-elect Biden will work tirelessly to ensure that families come out of this with the support they need to get their lives back on track.

The American people have shown their grit. It's time the government shows it.

Source: Joe Biden Twitter

NewPlanet
  • 3,663
  • 2
  • 14
  • 33

1 Answers1

0

It's time the government shows it.

Is grammatically correct and quite acceptable. It could be rephrased as:

It's time for the government to show it.

You correctly understand that

It's time the government show it.

is an error in grammar.

David Siegel
  • 41,131
  • 3
  • 51
  • 93
  • Maybe "government" can only be singular in AmE. But in British English, nouns like the government, the police, the company, Microsoft, etc., can all be singular OR plural. – FumbleFingers Dec 04 '20 at 17:46
  • But I must just say that idiomatically I'd always go for past tense after *it's [high] time [something happened], so the issue wouldn't arise for me anyway: It's time the government showed it.* – FumbleFingers Dec 04 '20 at 17:54
  • @FumbleFingers is it really the case that "the government" (with definate article) can be treated as a plural noun in BrE? I have read a lot of UK texts and don't recall such a usage. In any case, in USEng, "government" is normally singular, and when two or more separate governments are refereed to (such as several state governments, or the state and federal governments) it is made plural with an -s added, just like any regular singular noun. As for the tense, in this sort of construction it is a matter of style, IMO. Either way is correct; the choice depends on the tone of the text. – David Siegel Dec 04 '20 at 21:02
  • I've edited the OP and explained the question in the OP is whether "to show" works there. FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica, sorry I don't understand you. "It's time" is present while "showed" is an action carried out in the past -- One can not display real time the event already happened unless you have a time machine. Either "shows" or "show" - I think Mr. Biden has used it correctly. – NewPlanet Dec 05 '20 at 07:03
  • @NewPlanet "It's time that she showed her mettle" is a fully idiomatic usage, meaning that it is now time (Bre might say "high time") for her to display here quality. In general "it's time that ed" is a standard usage, indicating that should be happening, but isn't yet. Perhaps thsi should be a separate question. – David Siegel Dec 05 '20 at 15:46
  • 1
    @DavidSiegel: I'm surprised. If you switch this chart from BrE to AmE it's obvious Americans really don't like plural government. It's true singular is more common than plural even in BrE, but both are certainly used. Personally, I wouldn't necessarily notice which choice was made in many contexts (because they're both fine to my ear), but I'd have thought you could hardly avoid noticing when Brits make what you consider the "wrong" choice. – FumbleFingers Dec 05 '20 at 15:57
  • @FumbleFingers Well I haven't noticed, and I have been a fairly avid fan of things like Yes, Minister where the word "government" was used often. Perhaps i just herd what I expected to hear. "The government are" still seems to me like a simple error, but if that is British usage, so be it. – David Siegel Dec 05 '20 at 16:07
  • @DavidSiegel: Of my 4 examples (government, police, company, Microsoft), that first one is probably the least likely to be treated as plural. But it's still not particularly unusual, imho. Conversely, I always notice singular usages like A couple is* seated at the back of the bar* - I expect some Brits are okay with that, but it just reeks of "American blind adherence to inappropriate formal rules" to me. So far as I'm concerned, if "a couple" refers to two people like that, syntactically and semantically they're always plural. – FumbleFingers Dec 05 '20 at 16:41
  • @FumbleFingers I suppose it depends on whether you think of "a couple" as one entity or two people. Certainly I tend to think of "the government" as an entity,, not as a collection of people. If i was thinking of it as a collection I would say "the members of the government". – David Siegel Dec 05 '20 at 17:07
  • 1
    @DavidSiegel: Yes, that's the point. So, for example, I'm more likely to go for singular The family is* united in [holding some position]* (I see them as a single collective unit there). On the other hand, My family argue* a lot* is a more naturally plural context for me (multiple argumentative individuals). The latter easily extends to My family argue among themselves* a lot, but I couldn't possibly contemplate anything like My family argues among itself*. – FumbleFingers Dec 05 '20 at 17:16