Questions tagged [verb-agreement]
Agreement between a verb and its subject for number and person.
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Subject verb agreement with and [migrated]
Are the sentences below correct?
The average temperature peaks at 25 degrees in London and 30 degrees in New York.
The average temperature in both cities drops between July and September.
I’m ...
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Why use 'has' when the word before it is plural noun? [closed]
I have an English book, in which there is a sentence that confuses me.
The sentence is
In the past years, the business of clothes has grown well.
I'm confused because why the author use the word '...
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When citing a publication with more than one author as subject of a sentence, are verbs plural or singular? [closed]
Which is correct in this sentence: "enumerate" or "enumerates"?
Jacobs and Watanabe (1966) enumerate(s) possibilities that cause change in phase path length, including change in ...
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Trying to explain grammatical error in fragmented compound sentence [closed]
It was a turning point that led us to discover the unique opportunity to apply the technology to aerospace, and the company rebranded as *****.
Could somebody possibly help me explain what is wrong ...
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"Three spoonfuls of sugar" does this require the verb to be plural? [duplicate]
Which of these is correct?
Three spoonfuls of sugar is too much.
or
Three spoonfuls of sugar are too much.
I feel like the second could be correct, because there are more than one spoon. But on second ...
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There are/is a bottle and a plate in the kitchen? [duplicate]
Which one of these sentences is grammatically correct?
Question is not about compound subjects, it is about a singular and plural subject joined by 'and'.
There are a bottle and a plate in the ...
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Is this grammatically correct - "The fibre in cereal help us feel fuller" [duplicate]
There's a disagreement going down on this subreddit thread as to whether the sentence is grammatically correct. It's taken from a cereal ad:
The argument is:
"The fibre in Sultana Bran help us ...
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Less than two, Plural or Singular
There is/are less than two samples. (Discrete space)
(It is clear that for numbers like 3 or 4 the right word is "are" as we could have multiple samples, but using 2 we could only have ...
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When one person has two titles, is the verb plural or singular? [duplicate]
In a small dictatorship, the boss might hold a title like "The President and the Leader for Life." Would the following sentence take singular or plural verb?
The President and Leader for ...
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“What are” or “What is” in a quiz?
I want to ask a typical quiz question for children.
In a park, there are 10 bird boxes attached to several trees.
The answer in this particular case is plural: bird boxes.
Which question is correct?
...
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"There are fish of every hue." For different kinds of fish, should fish be in plural form here?
In the Caribbean waters, there are fish of every hue.
Since one is talking about different kinds of fish, should fish be in marked plural form (fishes) here?
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Subject-verb agreement with implied subject [duplicate]
tl;dr Which is the appropriate verb in the following sentence?
Apparently, 2,000 steps [is/are] hazardous to my sleep.
I use a sleep app that calculates a (dubious) sleep quality value and tracks ...
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Using respectively to define parameters in a math equation: Singluar or plural verb? [duplicate]
There are a lot of questions/discussions about using singular or plural verbs with respectively, and the answer is always a singular verb. Does using a singular verb also apply while defining the ...
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Which is correct - was or were? [closed]
Consider the following sentence:
However, if we were great friends with someone who committed murder or robbed a store, we wouldn’t question whether murder or stealing were bad.
Is this correct as ...
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Should I use the plural or singular verbs for the biological classification of orders, families, tribes, genera etc.?
Some examples from Wikipedia:
The hydrangea is a genus...
The Heliantheae (sometimes called the sunflower tribe) are the
third-largest tribe in the sunflower family (Asteraceae).
The family ...
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Is there a term for a construction like "...can and has developed," where the omission ("develop") results in an apparent lack of agreement?
Perhaps I'm just overlooking the explanation in grammar references (and questions on ELU), but I haven't found a discussion of this construction (or its advisability): a verb is omitted after a modal, ...
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How to say "He is my spectacles"? [duplicate]
Assume that I am a blind person and am writing an essay about how my brother allows me to see the world (just like spectacles allow people with poor vision to see the world) through his conversations ...
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Subject-modifier-verb agreement [duplicate]
In the following sentence, is the verb 'have' appropriate? Is it not supposed to be 'has' ?
The British council, in partnership with Microsoft philanthropies, have designed a course for young ...
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"Have seen" or "had seen" him recently [duplicate]
In the statement: "We _____ him several times recently. So we recognized him easily."
Which will fill the correctly, "have seen" or "had seen"?
At first I thought it ...
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Why do we use a singular noun which is related to more than one person? [duplicate]
Why isn’t “mobile phone” plural in the following sentence?
70 percent of the population of the world own a mobile phone.
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What do you call this example (I'd describe it as an "implied singular")? [duplicate]
Take this sentence I found:
"Too many services enabled on the firewall and switches leave an organization susceptible to compromised security."
I think "leaves" is appropriate ...
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Should proper nouns be used as singulars or plurals? [duplicate]
My question is about whether proper nouns (used as the subject of a sentence) should be considered as singular or plural. The proper nouns "The United States" and "The Duck Variations&...
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Difference between "with a view to giving..." and "with a view to give..." [closed]
Which one of the following is correct? And why?
He teaches his students with a view to giving the light of education
He teaches his students with a view to give the light of education
Edit: Added ...
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A number of philosophers believes [duplicate]
'A number of philosophers believe' sounds right to me. Not only because philosophers is plural, but also number, while singular, has a plural meaning.
Also having the s - s ending in 'philosophers ...
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Is "99.9% of the X community is degenerate" grammatical? [duplicate]
In all honesty, this is a bit of a dumb question. So I recently had a conversation about a video game and my friend said "99.9% of the League community is degenerate." I told him that it's ...
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Do I use "is" or "are" in these situations? [duplicate]
Suppose I want to describe "work" or types of work on a school.
Do I use "is" or "are" in these situations?
The proposed renovation and rehabilitation of the school
is ...
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"that" after A of B structure [duplicate]
Which of the following is correct?
I came across this sentence when reading the NY Mag; the writer produced sentence A.
A: It’s also a real biological feature, a specialized bundle of cells that ...
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Can ‘pants’, ‘glasses’, ‘scissors’, et similar in the sense of “a pair of [..]” take singular-number verbs? Why or why not?, Which ones / Which not?
‘pants’, ‘glasses’, ‘scissors’, {et similar}, in the sense of “a pair of [..]”: singular or plural?
I always slow myself to use the singular, since the usage is referring to it as one singular unit. I....
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With regards to a group, when do we relate to the group (singular) and when should we relate to the members of the group (plural)
Here is an example in the Cambridge English Dictionary.
A string quartet was playing Mozart.
Is this correct? or should it be "A string quartet were playing Mozart. Is a quartet an "it&...
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Subject–verb agreement with neither and nor [duplicate]
When using neither and nor in a sentence, how do you deal with subject–verb agreement?
For example, which one of this pair is the more acceptable of the two?
Neither German nor English show ...
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Is "-eth" (as in the verb "buildeth") always the singular? Is this inscription at Hoover Dam a mistake?
I was kind of surprised to find that one of the inscriptions on one of the towers at the Hoover Dam has what I thought was a typo, but I want to know if I'm in the wrong because I can't find anything ...
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What is the number of the verb in "We require that"? [duplicate]
I am writing a paper in which I need an object to satisfy a condition. (I can give the specifics here, but it seems to be irrelevant to the question.) The object is singular, so I originally wrote (...
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Plural in connection with an "and" and "a mess": "This pull request and merge is a mess" [duplicate]
I wonder if the sentence "This pull request and merge is a mess" has a correct grammar.
"pull request and merge" are two words so the verb should possibly be in plural for "...
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Verb agreement when using To Infinitive after ordinal numbers as subject
I know that after ordinal numbers (the first, the second etc.) we can use to-infinitive clause. E.g:
Ethan was the last person to understand the joke.
My questions is when the above construction ...
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Countable plural nouns & subject-verb agreement
A friend of mine claims that a sentence like:
Foreign languages is what interests me.
is the only correct option, whereas using the plural are would be wrong.
I'm not convinced about this and I ...
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Another subject-verb agreement [duplicate]
The verb 'need', always seems to throw me off somehow.
I feel in the sentence - "For a person to be affected, a copy of the gene from each parent need to be inherited" - it should be "...
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cotton-top tamarins also spend most of their lives in the trees. My question is about why not most of their live ? why lives? [duplicate]
I don't understand (most of their lives) is singular or plural ? what make this sentence singular for what reason ?
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"If you or your mother need help" or "If you or your mother needs help"? [duplicate]
I've been stuck on this for quite some time and my mind's foggy because of the overthinking.
I would like to check which of these are correct:
If you or your mother need help...
If you or your mother ...
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What is more appropriate in this sentence - both or each?
Communication and interpersonal skills are ________ important in their own ways.
The above sentence is a GATE 2014 MCQ Question with the following options -
both
each
all
either
The options 'all' ...
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Subject-verb agreement question
Quick question. Does the sentence below seem grammatically correct?
"Employees are a great resource for connecting you to the right product."
My gut is telling me that even though "...
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What's the proper pluralization of this linking verb? Did I violate the subject-verb agreement law? [duplicate]
This is the quote I'm having trouble with.
Help me prioritize my tasks. By "tasks," what I really mean is
programming languages.
I'm particularly confused in the line where I say, "...
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Singular vs. plural when the subject has multiple objects in it
This is a question about deciding singular vs. plural verb where the subject contains multiple objects in it. Let me set the context first.
I have a mathematical problem where I need to find a ...
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Is this grammatically correct? I am not sure of the sentence structure. "She saw two boys in white dresses standing by the road?"
I am kinda confused of the participial phrase in that sentence. Is that grammatically correct? Do I need to put a comma? Does the sentence make sense?
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Is there a difference between "seeks" and "tries"?
I am seeking guidance on using seek vs try when speaking.
This sentence is talking about what a research study is attempting to discover:
A flu challenge study tries to understand what happens when a ...
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Grammar of "all are agreed"?
The oft-used phrase "all are agreed" doesn't make grammatical sense to me.
It means "all agree" or "all agreed", or even "all are agreeing", with "all"...
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Confusion with plural usage form [duplicate]
So I'm quite confused as to what word do I use in these sentences:
That equates to almost over 136,000 cars needing "repairs/repair".
DIY hail damage repair kits really "isn't/aren't&...
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"Neither" plural agreement [duplicate]
There are four different forms of verb pluralisation agreement I'm curious about:
neither thing [has/have] an attribute
neither of the things [has/have] an attribute
both of the things [has/have] an ...
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"There are" or "there is"? [duplicate]
"There are Mary and Nat"
"There's Mary and Nat"
Which sentence is correct and why?
Thanks in advance!
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Verb form after "and" -- is there a rule? [closed]
Questions:
In the examples below, is there a rule that says which verb form must come after an “and”?
Should a comma appear before “and” in example 2B? Why or why not? I can’t locate a rule ...
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Verb agreement with percentages [duplicate]
Recently I've come across this sentence in Keynote Advanced:
Over 50 per cent of our materials come / comes from local suppliers.
The answer provided in the teacher's book is comes. I've checked ...
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