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I'm having trouble figuring out which sentence is the most acceptable. The subject and object are both plural, but it sounds more natural using a singular object. Also, I can't figure out if the auxiliary verb should be singular or plural in the sentences that start with, "Each of these children...". EDIT: To add clarity to my question, there were 25,115 children who were abducted by 25,115 adults who were members of those children's families. Each child was abducted by a member of his or her own family.

"These children were abducted by a member of their own family."

"These children were abducted by members of their own families."

"Each of these children were/was abducted by a member of their own family."

"Each of these children were/was abducted by members of their own families."

Tommy O'Neill
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    Gracious, it depends on how many people abducted them, whether the children belonged to different families, whether the people who abducted them belonged to more than one family, and probably other things. You need to specify the context. – Isabel Archer May 22 '20 at 00:36
  • How many people abducted them? One family member or multiple family members? Also, each is a singular subject, so it takes was. – Jason Bassford May 22 '20 at 00:52
  • To add clarity to my question, there were 25,115 children who were abducted by 25,115 adults who were members of those children's families. Each child was abducted by a member of his or her own family. – Tommy O'Neill May 22 '20 at 09:48
  • Does this answer your question? Do you pluralize the singular possessions of individual members of a plural group? The other main question, agreement after 'each [of these Ns]', is basic, but has also been covered here before. // You also need to specify 'grammatical' vs 'in accord with Gricean maxims'. 'These children were abducted by members of their own families.' is grammatical and true but loses specificity. Like ... – Edwin Ashworth May 22 '20 at 10:00
  • saying 'There is at least one cat in the garden' when you know full well there are seven. This violates the maxim of quantity (telling 'the truth', but not the whole truth). – Edwin Ashworth May 22 '20 at 10:02
  • Thanks for all of the information. It helps a lot. – Tommy O'Neill May 22 '20 at 14:13

1 Answers1

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All versions are acceptable and share a common meaning: multiple children from different families, kidnapped by at least 1 family member.

The variant meanings include circumstances where the children are:

  1. all from a single family
  2. each from different families

and whether the kidnapper(s) is/are:

  1. a single individual responsible for all the kidnappings (1 family)

  2. multiple individuals from different families with no connection to each other

  3. multiple relatives within a single family (coordinated, or independent)

  4. multiple groups of relatives from multiple families.

The subject 'each' (of the children) can be either singular or plural to emphasize a group or a sequence, but in common-usage they are interchangeable. Just be consistent.

wetcircuit
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