Our minds are extremely potent devices.
This is a sentence of a novel. But is mind not a single entity? How can we use minds and devices here, which are showing plural form.
Suggestions please. Thank you.
Learn English – Our minds are extremely potent devices
singular-vs-plural
Best Answer
To answer your question, Seema, we have numerous definitions of mind. In this particular case, the word is referring to that portion of a person which gives rise to our consciousness and rational capability. Each person has their own.
By using the phrase our minds we are speaking of the collection of minds individually, instead of as a single group. As noted by CopperKettle, Maulik and Perry, that collective may be referred to as a single entity (for example: The mind of this council has decided...), but it is still composed of many individual sub-entities, each which can be distinctly called a mind.
If you're trying to speak of a groups of minds functioning as a single conceptual entity, likely toward a common purpose, the example could be rewritten as thus:
Finally, let's put that example of the singular into a context where it could be considered natural speech: