Okay, so grammatically, in perfect tense we can use plural to mention a thing that has happened at least (or exactly) once? Wouldn’t using a plural imply multiple, when the known fact is singular?
Eh, when someone says “private investigator,” I subconsciously assume there could be a group involved, and not one person. If I hire a tax preparer, there are probably multiple people involved (the person preparing the tax docs, the accountants auditing those docs, people auditing their software, etc).
If someone says “private investigators,” I assume they contacted multiple agencies, perhaps on multiple occasions.
It’s a fair point but it’s not as egregious as most other headlines. I personally give this one a pass since clickbaits are meta in the article space. It shows that GOG has this in their toolbox.
that’s not what it means… investigator could mean a single person, investigators could mean they hired a firm to do the job and multiple people work for the firm.
People love to look for a reason to be offended by things.
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Okay, so grammatically, in perfect tense we can use plural to mention a thing that has happened at least (or exactly) once? Wouldn’t using a plural imply multiple, when the known fact is singular?
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It did feel like exaggeration to me, but it could be my bias. May feel differently about it later.
You are right about the fact that it could be an agency. Maybe I was just being pedantic 😀
Eh, when someone says “private investigator,” I subconsciously assume there could be a group involved, and not one person. If I hire a tax preparer, there are probably multiple people involved (the person preparing the tax docs, the accountants auditing those docs, people auditing their software, etc).
If someone says “private investigators,” I assume they contacted multiple agencies, perhaps on multiple occasions.
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lol, same here. Except leaning towards super annoyed because of some work related things.
Yes. Yes implying plurality for a singular thing is, by definition, exaggerating.
Yes
It’s a fair point but it’s not as egregious as most other headlines. I personally give this one a pass since clickbaits are meta in the article space. It shows that GOG has this in their toolbox.
“investigators” is plural tho so that is indeed wrong
Not really. It could be they hired several for this one case.
If a person is off the grid in Yorkshire, you wouldn’t get someone from London to go up to do something.
Well, the quote specifically says “a private investigator”.
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That’s an interesting point. You are right about that.
That is simply a generic way of referring to the concept of private investigators, as I’ve also just done in this sentence.
that’s not what it means… investigator could mean a single person, investigators could mean they hired a firm to do the job and multiple people work for the firm.
People love to look for a reason to be offended by things.