ABSTRACT
It sounds very elementary to say that singular nouns need to have singular verbs. But this is not always the case in non-American writing. Those zany Canadians, for example, will often say things like “Montreal are skating well.” This is not acceptable in American English writing. Montreal is a city, and thus is a singular noun. We would say “Montreal is skating well.” Of course, it would be better to say “The Canadiens are skating well,” since the players (the Canadiens) are doing the skating and not the city (Montreal).
