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?

Solution 1:

Good question. You need to understand that the confusion created is because you used the word 'own'. In this situation you must say "Many of us are even unable to remember our own phone number." (in singular) Of course if you use plural it won't be grammatically wrong, but semantically it won't be correct. (If you're supposing that every one has one number.)

If you haven't used 'own', you must have used the plural form. (unless the object can be referred to as one common object, like saying: "We live our lives." and "We live our life." In second sentence we used the singular because what's meant by life is the human being life.

Hope I provided you with what you need.