Learn English – Does the word after “respective” always need to be a plural

commassingular-vs-plural

I have some confusion about whether a word after respective should always be a plural.

I have changed a sentence from

  1. (a) For aerial A and aerial B the masts were moved within 2 feet of the park boundary, due to a shift in position of each solar panel/recorder unit, and so in these two cases the output cables extend beyond the 100 ft boundary.

to

  1. (b) For aerial A and aerial B, the masts were moved within 2 feet of the park boundary due to a shift in position of their respective solar panel/recorder units and, in these two cases, the output cables extend beyond the 100 ft boundary.

(Each aerial is connected to one solar panel/recorder unit, which is mentioned before this sentence)

Also have I used the commas correctly in sentence 1(b) and 2?

  1. Only one station, Epsilon, is affected by light pollution due to its distance from the main gate and as a result we exclude it from our analysis.

Best Answer

In this example, "units" is plural because it refers to more than one unit. It is possible to have a singular after "respective" it one is only referring to one thing. E.g.:

"Each aerial is connected to it's respective recorder unit and solar panel."

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