I saw a flyer recently for a company that offers writing services: much the same thing I do.

Without mentioning names, as I’m not interested in undermining or maligning any competition, I was interested in their opening sentence:

Words are a very important tool.

Of course, I work as a writer and was shown this flyer in my capacity as a writer, so the first thing I did was to pick apart the grammar, noticing the non-agreement of number. If the verb to be functions as a big equals sign, if we have a plural as the subject, we should also be looking for a plural as an object.

But is it wrong?

The first thing I’d ask myself is whether there are instances where a plural noun can ‘be’ a corresponding singular noun; then I’d ask whether there are any other kinds of tools that are made of multiple parts.

On the first question, we could have the sentence Those three guys are a trio. So, its syntax is fine. Whether a tool can be something plural, that’s a semantic question. Obviously, a trio is something made up of multiple entities. A tool, I”m not so sure about. I’d even argue that nails are individual tools (if they’re even tools at all: a hammer is a tool. What then, is a nail).

So for me at least, it fails semantically. And as a writer, I wouldn’t want that kind of ambiguity being so out there and obvious, especially on a promotional piece spruiking my professional services. Choosing your words carefully can bring out so much more meaning in your langage.

Because language is a very important tool.