Timeline for "is" or "are" when dealing with a singular example of a plural concept?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 24, 2017 at 18:13 | vote | accept | Michael Stachowsky | ||
| Apr 24, 2017 at 18:01 | answer | added | RaceYouAnytime | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 24, 2017 at 16:57 | comment | added | TonyK | This is not at all awkward. It sounds completely natural to this native speaker. | |
| Apr 24, 2017 at 16:54 | comment | added | Aleksandr Hovhannisyan | Simply put, the to-be verb is does not correspond to "my courses" in that sentence. The thing that is "being" is the "major component". You are saying there is a major component (singular), not major components (plural) | |
| Apr 24, 2017 at 16:44 | comment | added | MDHunter | In both your original and this suggestion the whole noun-phrase is still singular, obviously, but this... "One of the major components..." at least has some prosodic parallelism by sharing the final "s" with courses, and may sound less "off" to you. Without flipping it around or substantially re-writing it, I might go for "One of the major components of my courses is teaching mathematics." | |
| Apr 24, 2017 at 16:27 | review | First posts | |||
| Apr 25, 2017 at 6:15 | |||||
| Apr 24, 2017 at 16:27 | history | asked | Michael Stachowsky | CC BY-SA 3.0 |