# rezstrzygnięcie wyborów in English



## guniang

The sentence is:
Niemieckie media podały, że liderzy czterech krajów porozumieli się  nieoficjalnie, że żaden z nich nie spotka się z X przed  rozstrzygnięciem wyborów.


Is my try correct?
The German media revealed that the leaders of four countries had settled  unofficially that none of them would meet X before the result of French  election has been known / before the result of French election is known (?) .

Thank you for your help


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## NotNow

The German media has announced that the leaders of four countries have unofficially come to an understanding that none of them will meet X before the election is decided.


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## Ben Jamin

NotNow said:


> The German media has announced that the leaders of four countries have unofficially come to an understanding that none of them will meet X before the election is decided.



Why singular 'has' with media when the Polish sentence uses plural?
(And with the accelerating tendency in English to pluralize subjects grammatically singular (the police have, and like)).


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## majlo

I also believe "the media" should go with a plural auxiliary.


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## LilianaB

I agree with NotNow. It sounds very good. You can also say that they have agreed instead of they have come to an understanding. I think this might be better. They have unofficially agreed. As to the media it can either be plural or singular. From a purely grammatical point of view it should be singular, but either one is good.


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## NotNow

I used the singular form after the word media because it is more common in English than the plural. Although it is plural, _media_ is hardly used as such.


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## Oletta

Here's the forum thread on the singularity vs plurality of the word 'mass media':
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2284110

I have been also taught to use the word media with the plural but it seems it is changing....


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## dreamlike

NotNow said:


> Although it is plural, _media_ is hardly used as such.



That's a gross exaggeration. It's true that "has" seems to be more popular with journalists, but "have" can be seen fairly often. Also, media can take both singular and plural but most of the natives who contributed to the thread linked by Oletta prefer "have" to has". Interestingly, the papers appear to consider "media" plural. 


> *Propaganda *looks plural but is not. *Billiards*, *bowls*, *darts *and *fives *are also singular. *Data *and *media *are plural.
> The Economist's style guide



And yet, "has" is used with media more often. I wouldn't go so far as to say that media is HARDLY used as plural, though. 
have - 11,100 hints
has - 19,300


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## NotNow

I also changed the number of the word _election_. Does that merit endless discussion, too?


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## Ben Jamin

NotNow said:


> I also changed the number of the word _election_. Does that merit endless discussion, too?


Why do do you get upset?


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## dreamlike

I didn't say it merits a discussion. It merits a _mention,_ though, that most of the people prefer "has" to "have" and the former is used in the papers reasonably often. Does that qualify as _hardly_? Perhaps "hardly" has taken on a new meaning, and it didn't come to my attention yet... 

I made my point - that's what the internet forums are for, in case you didn't notice.


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## POLSKAdoBOJU

LilianaB said:


> I agree with NotNow. It sounds very good. You can also say that they have agreed instead of they have come to an understanding. I think this might be better. They have unofficially agreed. As to the media it can either be plural or singular. From a purely grammatical point of view it should be *singular* , but either one is good.


From a purely grammatical point of view *media should be plural - *medium is the singular form.


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## LilianaB

Yes, medius is singular but not in English. It could either be plural or singular. I think it should be singular here because media is treated as a collective noun here not separate media. The press is, sort of. It can be either one as I said. There is a tendency to use the singular more in certain contexts.


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