What is a number shift in grammar?

Answer 1

There are many kinds, but they all share the same problem: moving from the singular to the plural (or the other way around).

Here are some examples:

1. "Every single one of the girls on the Basketball team was responsible for their own lunch at the tournament."

See what happened? The sentence shifted from singular (as emphasized by the "Every single one") to the plural ("their"). Clearly, the pronoun should be her, which retains the singular and is consistent with the gender of the girls on the basketball team.

2. "In spite of their opposition to the war, the council is going to support the government on this bill."

This is a little harder to spot, but the council seems to be acting as a single unit in its support of the government, so the fact that it is referred to as plural in the opening phrase ("their opposition") is definitely an example of a number shift.

The spoken, vernacular, common, everyday form of English usage often shifts in number repeatedly, which makes it difficult for a learner of the language to get a solid grasp of the rules and make it their own.

Saw that one? It should read "make it his own" or "make it her own" (you choose, depending on your own gender, perhaps), or make the whole thing plural ("which makes it difficult for learners of the language"). Convoluting the expression to make "his/her" or the barbaric "s/he" is a deference to political correctness at the expense of eloquence and clarity.

Answer 2

A number shift in grammar refers to a change in the grammatical number of a word (singular or plural) which may influence the agreement of other words in the sentence. For example, if a singular noun is changed to a plural form, any associated verbs or pronouns may also need to be adjusted to maintain grammatical correctness.