I was on the Islamic site of Stack Exchange which is currently on beta. We are preparing the website for new users, and one of the moderators and I are confused about some grammar. My answer said "with the insignificant amount of alcohol it is impossible to become intoxicated" and it was edited to "get intoxicated". Would one be more correct or are they equally correct?
Learn English – “Get intoxicated” vs. “become intoxicated”
grammaticalityverbsword-choice
Related Solutions
Use is because you're talking about a single period of time with a range-based duration.
There are extensive discussions of the subtleties of Collective Nouns and Mass Nouns on Wikipedia that explain from a technical perspective why some seemingly plural things are treated as singular grammatically.
IMO, the verb form of favorite would have slowly started becoming popular at around the same time that Microsoft Internet Explorer did. The Wikipedia page for bookmark states:
Bookmarks are called favorites or Internet shortcuts in Internet Explorer, and by virtue of that browser's large market share, these terms have been synonymous with bookmark since the first browser war.
The first browser war took place between 1995 and the early 2000s.
Internet Explorer 1 was a reworked version of Mosaic and was released in 1995. Among its many customisations, the Bookmarks menu was renamed to Favorites.
Best Answer
I think I would prefer become in that sentence.
As I commented, they are practically synonymous, but get may have the connotation of a deliberate action for the purpose of intoxication and become something more passive. There is an idiomatic phrase "get drunk" which does seem to connote intention; to "become drunk" almost sounds accidental. But that's a subjective view and probably unjustified.