Is “et al. [1]” used as a singular or plural subject?












1















I've checked out a similar question, but to the best of my knowledge, it only tells me that "Name et al." is used as a singular subject since it refers to the authors, but what if the “et al..” part is followed by the citation of their article? I found the following sentence in a journal paper:




Gomes et al. [7] also outline a greedy method for finding feasible solutions...




So how should I use something like "et al. [1]" in the end? I'm really confused now.










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  • Can you correct/clarify "if the reference of their article is followed by?" ? One or more words appear to have been .

    – Cerberus
    2 hours ago













  • I think you misunderstood the answer to the question that you cite.

    – Damila
    1 hour ago
















1















I've checked out a similar question, but to the best of my knowledge, it only tells me that "Name et al." is used as a singular subject since it refers to the authors, but what if the “et al..” part is followed by the citation of their article? I found the following sentence in a journal paper:




Gomes et al. [7] also outline a greedy method for finding feasible solutions...




So how should I use something like "et al. [1]" in the end? I'm really confused now.










share|improve this question

























  • Can you correct/clarify "if the reference of their article is followed by?" ? One or more words appear to have been .

    – Cerberus
    2 hours ago













  • I think you misunderstood the answer to the question that you cite.

    – Damila
    1 hour ago














1












1








1








I've checked out a similar question, but to the best of my knowledge, it only tells me that "Name et al." is used as a singular subject since it refers to the authors, but what if the “et al..” part is followed by the citation of their article? I found the following sentence in a journal paper:




Gomes et al. [7] also outline a greedy method for finding feasible solutions...




So how should I use something like "et al. [1]" in the end? I'm really confused now.










share|improve this question
















I've checked out a similar question, but to the best of my knowledge, it only tells me that "Name et al." is used as a singular subject since it refers to the authors, but what if the “et al..” part is followed by the citation of their article? I found the following sentence in a journal paper:




Gomes et al. [7] also outline a greedy method for finding feasible solutions...




So how should I use something like "et al. [1]" in the end? I'm really confused now.







grammar grammatical-number latin






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edited 56 mins ago







Mark

















asked 3 hours ago









MarkMark

405146




405146













  • Can you correct/clarify "if the reference of their article is followed by?" ? One or more words appear to have been .

    – Cerberus
    2 hours ago













  • I think you misunderstood the answer to the question that you cite.

    – Damila
    1 hour ago



















  • Can you correct/clarify "if the reference of their article is followed by?" ? One or more words appear to have been .

    – Cerberus
    2 hours ago













  • I think you misunderstood the answer to the question that you cite.

    – Damila
    1 hour ago

















Can you correct/clarify "if the reference of their article is followed by?" ? One or more words appear to have been .

– Cerberus
2 hours ago







Can you correct/clarify "if the reference of their article is followed by?" ? One or more words appear to have been .

– Cerberus
2 hours ago















I think you misunderstood the answer to the question that you cite.

– Damila
1 hour ago





I think you misunderstood the answer to the question that you cite.

– Damila
1 hour ago










1 Answer
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Et alii means "and others", so it would make sense to treat Gomes and others as plural. Note that et al. is not used for et alius ("and another"), since Gomes et alius is barely or not at all shorter than Gomes and Samuel: it is only used when there are three or more authors in total.



On the other hand, Gomes et al. can stand metonymically for the text by Gomes et al., which would be singular; so a case can be made for treating it as singular.






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  • So both singular and plural usages can be valid depending on context?

    – Mark
    53 mins ago











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1 Answer
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1 Answer
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active

oldest

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active

oldest

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active

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1














Et alii means "and others", so it would make sense to treat Gomes and others as plural. Note that et al. is not used for et alius ("and another"), since Gomes et alius is barely or not at all shorter than Gomes and Samuel: it is only used when there are three or more authors in total.



On the other hand, Gomes et al. can stand metonymically for the text by Gomes et al., which would be singular; so a case can be made for treating it as singular.






share|improve this answer
























  • So both singular and plural usages can be valid depending on context?

    – Mark
    53 mins ago
















1














Et alii means "and others", so it would make sense to treat Gomes and others as plural. Note that et al. is not used for et alius ("and another"), since Gomes et alius is barely or not at all shorter than Gomes and Samuel: it is only used when there are three or more authors in total.



On the other hand, Gomes et al. can stand metonymically for the text by Gomes et al., which would be singular; so a case can be made for treating it as singular.






share|improve this answer
























  • So both singular and plural usages can be valid depending on context?

    – Mark
    53 mins ago














1












1








1







Et alii means "and others", so it would make sense to treat Gomes and others as plural. Note that et al. is not used for et alius ("and another"), since Gomes et alius is barely or not at all shorter than Gomes and Samuel: it is only used when there are three or more authors in total.



On the other hand, Gomes et al. can stand metonymically for the text by Gomes et al., which would be singular; so a case can be made for treating it as singular.






share|improve this answer













Et alii means "and others", so it would make sense to treat Gomes and others as plural. Note that et al. is not used for et alius ("and another"), since Gomes et alius is barely or not at all shorter than Gomes and Samuel: it is only used when there are three or more authors in total.



On the other hand, Gomes et al. can stand metonymically for the text by Gomes et al., which would be singular; so a case can be made for treating it as singular.







share|improve this answer












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answered 2 hours ago









CerberusCerberus

54.3k2120208




54.3k2120208













  • So both singular and plural usages can be valid depending on context?

    – Mark
    53 mins ago



















  • So both singular and plural usages can be valid depending on context?

    – Mark
    53 mins ago

















So both singular and plural usages can be valid depending on context?

– Mark
53 mins ago





So both singular and plural usages can be valid depending on context?

– Mark
53 mins ago


















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