There are lots of difficulties here. Is "sheep" singular or plural? Is "fish" singular or plural? Is "the government" singular or plural? Is "England" singular or plural? (England is a country / England are bound to lose the match) Is "English" singular or plural? (English is a language / The English are eccentric) So even an exhaustive list of words is not going to give you the right answer all the time. You need to take the word in context, i.e. you need to parse the sentence grammatically. Here There Be Dragons. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.