From the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:
Small shops have been a casualty of the recession.
"Shops" is plural here while "casualty" is singular. Any reason for that?
Can I have the sentence stick to one form?
Small shop has been a casualty of the recession.
Small shops have been casualties of the recession.
Thanks in advance.
Best Answer
The reason for the use of the singular casualty is to imply that small shops (collectively) are one casualty among many other groups of entities. Another example:
It may be grammatical to say "the funds are significant factors", but this changes the meaning to suggest that the funds each have a separate effect, rather than that, together, they have a collective effect among other (unmentioned) groups that also have an effect (e.g. foreign investors, families with rising incomes, etc.)
Of course if we were talking about one specific fund, then we would use the singular: