Question For Those Who Know About English

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Rob King

Rob King

There's a conversation going on between myself and a friend on Facebook. The Salvation Army in Canada has a yearly week-long conference called The "Salvation Army Canadian National Music & Gospel Arts Camp."

In shortening that (because it is a bit wordy to use in conversation) there are two groups. Those who shorten it to National, and those who shorten it to Nationals.

From where I stand, "National" sounds awkward, but I cannot figure out why "Nationals" could possibly make any sense. I know I've heard people talk about "Territorial" conferences, which they shorten to "Territorials" but ... again, I don't understand the logic behind it.

Can somebody here figure it out? Or does anyone know the answer off the top of their head?
 
Wahad

Wahad

National seems the 'right' one to me - Nationals sounds more like it would be a championship of sorts. Since this is just a camp/conference and there's no competition element (I guess, I have no idea what goes on there) National sounds better. Then again, that's just my personal opinion.
 

To me, National would refer to the conference itself while Nationals would refer to those going to the conference.
 
klew

klew

I could see "National" referring to a singular place/building, and "Nationals" referring to a multiple/reoccurring event.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
sounds like it's slang terminology and not exactly subject to what is grammatically correct but whatever sounds better.
 

I definitely associate "nationals" with some kind of competition as Wahad said. I don't think I've ever heard it in a non-competitive context.
 
A

Alex B.

I agree that Nationals is used in reference to competition, and usually in cases where the meet will have multiple events, right? Not just a single match to determine the champion, but a series of finals to determine the winner. Hence the plural.
 
Rob King

Rob King

I see! That's actually very interesting, because from what I've been told, the music conference used to be very competitive. Not in any real official capacity, but ... well, the way you might expect when you gather some of the best of an organization's musicians in the same place for a week.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
S

Singularity.EXE

Oh boy a thread for us English folks!

/reads the OP
/is sad.

Now no one will know my theory about Frankentstein. :waah:
 
Zappit

Zappit

Staff member
Music can be understood to be plural, and Gospel Arts is clearly plural. National is the correct usage. If you refer to the events without the whole name, you could call it the Nationals, in reference to all the different events.
 
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