grammatical number - Plural Subject = Plural Object?


In the sentence:



Many of us are even unable to remember our own phone number



Assuming each person only has one phone number, which is grammatically correct: phone number or phone numbers?



Answer



"Phone numbers."


Let's take "own" out and make it more obvious.



Many of us are unable to remember our phone number.



This suggests that we collectively have one phone number that many of us can't remember.



Many of us are unable to remember our phone numbers.



This suggests that we have multiple phone numbers -- which is true, and is what you meant.


Using singular for plural can be disorienting. "We all like to drive our car" -- we only have one car? "After all that noise, our head was in serious pain" -- how many people have that one head, anyway? Grammatically correct if there's only one car and one head -- but not in the case you meant!


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