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Have been following a book, but I am getting confused.

See the below 2 sentences:

1) In Britain the banks usually open at 9:30 in the morning.

2) The City Museum closes at 5 o'clock in the evening.

Here question is why 'open' is in singular form in first sentence while 'closes' is in plural form in second?

The book states the following rule for pluralization:

I/we/you/they -> singular He/she/it -> plural

In my understanding both 'The Britain banks' and 'City Museum' falls in second category (It)

Please help Thanks.

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    Can you tell us what research you've done so far regarding your question?
    – Neeku
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 15:42
  • You've followed a wrong book! Both sentences are grammatically correct.
    – user307254
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 15:45
  • Oh is it, it is one of the exercises in Essential English Grammar by Raymond Murphy... With answer keys, I have tried gathering the explanation else where too, but none explains to my satisfaction
    – user47487
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 16:51
  • I wonder if you are getting confused by the "s" which turns nouns in to plurals, but does the "opposite" for verbs. Singular noun ->boy; plural noun ->boys. But for verbs, if the subject is singular we put an "s" on the verb, but for a plural subject, we do not put an "s". So the verb and the subject frequently have opposite "s"-behavior. Example: "The boy sees.", but "The boys see."
    – Lorel C.
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 17:34

1 Answer 1

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"In Britain, the banks" is plural. It's talking about all of the banks in Britain. The pronoun for that would be they, which would fall into the first category: third person plural.

The second sentence however, is talking about one particular museum, The City Museum, AKA it, so that falls into the second category.

Nonetheless, neither of those verbs are "plural". Pluralization is for nouns, rather than verbs. The verb is only conjugated to match the person and that s in "closes" is called the third person s, not a plural form of the verb.

You could read more about this Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary note about third person singular.

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  • In Britain, banks....same result though.
    – Lambie
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 15:54
  • Thanks a lot, that's the explanation I was looking for, you are right about plurazition of nouns.. my bad.
    – user47487
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 16:56
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    What do you mean Lambie?
    – user47487
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 16:59

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