Timeline for "Key to the relationship are ... not just X, Y & Z, but also...": Why does this sentence use "are" instead of "is"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 16, 2018 at 9:28 | comment | added | Greg Lee | @BillJ, I imagine you're right. I thought I could get the main point across without going into detail. | |
| Jan 16, 2018 at 9:24 | comment | added | Greg Lee | Nanu, I knew what the subject was because (1) I knew intuitively the sentence was fully grammatical (since I'm a native English speaker), and (2) it was the only way to work out the agreement of "are". | |
| Jan 16, 2018 at 8:25 | comment | added | BillJ | Why not: "Not just defence and security - which have a strong defence orientation - but also innovation, agriculture", are key to the relationship", where the negative+postive NP coordination is the subject? | |
| Jan 16, 2018 at 7:26 | comment | added | nanu | OK thanks for your answers ..I understood...please tell me how can i improve my these kinds of skills ..I confuse oftenly when see above kind of examples.. | |
| Jan 16, 2018 at 7:19 | comment | added | SonOfPingu | In this context "key" is used as an adjective meaning "important/critical" so the sentence is saying "[important to the relationship] are defence and security.....or in normal order "Defence and security are key to the relationship" | |
| Jan 16, 2018 at 7:12 | comment | added | nanu | Thanks for you reply.. But can you tell me how you recognised that subject is after the verb " are" I mean why it is not " key to the relationship" And please also tell me in which conditions we do so..means use subject after " verb" | |
| Jan 16, 2018 at 6:58 | history | answered | Greg Lee | CC BY-SA 3.0 |