2021-03-23
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด W – Whereabouts
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Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง Whereabouts = ‘HWAIR-uh-bouts’ or ‘WAIR-‘
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Whereabouts Is or whereabouts Are?
Whereabouts may function as an adverb (“Whereabouts is it?”),
a conjunction(“I know whereabouts he lives”), or
a noun (“Her whereabouts were unknown”).
The noun formmay provoke confusion
because it feels singular but looks plural;
should one write “her whereabouts were” or"her whereabouts was”?
Because the final -s is an adverbial suffix, not a plural ending
(similar to the one at the end of besides),
certain usage commentators have insisted on
treating whereabouts as a singular noun.
In spite of this,
you should feel comfortable pairing it with a plural verb;
while some have employed singular verbs with this word,
the plural(“her whereabouts were”) has become the regular choice.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
'Whereabouts': is it singular or plural?
Don't letthe '-s' fool you. Or do.
The whereabouts of conclusive advice
about whether whereabouts is plural or singular
has historically been elusive. We're here to correct that.
These days it's more often than not plural:
A warrant was issued, but his whereabouts were unknown.
— The Barrie (Ontario) Examiner, 13 Mar. 2017
The use in that quote is typical, but such was not always the case. Whereabouts was during the 19th century thought of as either singular or plural, with a distinct—at least in literary texts—leaning toward singular:
The whereabouts of the Oldest Inhabitant was at once settled when I looked at them.
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1850
... he gave it out that her whereabouts was uncertain and her destiny probably obscure….
— Henry James, The Tragic Muse, 1890
... being as much of a farmer, and as extensive a farmer, as himself, her probable whereabouts was out-of-doors at this time of the year.
— Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, 1874
She has been married three years ... when suddenly her whereabouts is discovered by her first husband….
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, 1894
Whereabouts dabbled in both singular and plural
use in the early part of the 20th century,
and then settled in the latter half of the 20th century
into its current situation as a nounthat requires a plural verb.
But wait, you might say.
This is stupid: whereabouts ends in -s. It's obviously plural.
Why would anyone have ever considered it to be singular?
To which we say, ah, but we're talking about English here.
There's history to be accounted for.
The final -s in whereabouts (and thereabouts)
may look like a plural ending but it isn't one.
The noun is derived from the adverb whereabouts,
and the -s is actually an adverbial suffix.
That's right:
there's a suffix that looks just like the thing that makes a word plural
but that actually marks it as an adverb.
(You can't make this stuff up.)
We see it in always and besides too. Go figure.
Always and besides have never complicated things by becoming nouns,
of course.
But whereabouts has.
While some were historically persuaded
by the adverbial origins of the word's -s
that the noun's true status was singular,
these people are now decidedly in the minority.
You should have no qualms about using whereabouts with a plural verb,
no matter your own whereabouts.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions
Whereabouts
This word can be an adverb (Whereabouts did you go?) and a noun.
As a noun, it is formed from an adverb (where) and a preposition (about) with an s tied to the end.
As a noun, whereabouts is a singularand requires a singular verb
unless it is made clear and more than one whereabouts is involved:
“The neighbors are away, but I do not know what their whereabouts is.”
“The parents went one direction and the children another; I don’t know what their various whereabouts are.”
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
Whereabouts are/whereabouts is
Despite the deceptive "S" on the end of the word,
"whereabouts"is normally singular, not plural.
"The whereabouts of the stolen diamond is unknown."
Only if you were simultaneously referring to twoor more
persons having separate whereaboutswould the word be plural,
and you are quite unlikely to want to do so.
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
WHERE IT'S AT
This slang expression gained widespread currency in the sixties
as a hip way of statingthat
the speaker understood the essential truth of a situation:
"I know where it's at."
Or more commonly: "You don't know where it's at."
It is still heard from time to time with that meaning,
but the user risks being labeled as a quaint old Boomer.
However, standard usage never accepted
the literal sense of the phrase.
Don't say, "I put my purse down and now I don't know where it's at"
unless you want to be regarded as uneducated.
"Where it is" will do fine; the "at" is redundant.
