2

I’ve searched my question on the site and found a similar one All of them are wearing an orange shirt. OR All of them are wearing orange shirts

I’ve read it and I feel there might be a slight difference between my question and this one.

All of them are wearing an orange shirt.

Both Amy and I are wearing a scarf.

Of course, each person is wearing a scarf.

In the sentence, “Amy” and “I” sound more like two individual people, different from “them”.

So does “Both Amy and I are wearing a scarf” sound right?

Do I still have to say “Both Amy and I are wearing scarves.”?

3
  • Well, them meas more than one. So, referring to two individual people as them is totally fine. Jan 10, 2018 at 1:15
  • Yes, if you use the distributive "both", you should use the plural "scarves", although there are a lot of times that native speakers just choose not to adhere to this rule; however, the distributive "each" means that you must use the singular.
    – Nick
    Jan 10, 2018 at 1:45
  • The most natural wording for me is "Amy and I are both wearing scarves." Jan 10, 2018 at 5:34

1 Answer 1

4

Remember, you can replace, "Amy and I" with the pronoun, "We". This means that the subject is still plural. So, we'd have to use the plural, "Scarves" in this case.

However, if you want to talk about individual clothing choices, you'd use something like,

"Amy and I are each wearing a scarf."

The "each" refers to each person performing the action, regardless of how many people are doing it.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .