is or are - please help!

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Nikko

#208213 Tue, 21 Mar 06 10:15 PM

Please tell me which sentence is correct - I say the first but my teacher says the second. Please help!!

Developing and maintaining positive relationships with families and the community is essential in promoting academic success.

Developing and maintaining positive relationships with families and the community are essential in promoting academic success.

Nikko

Joined on Tue, Mar 21 2006

New Member (03)

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benita

#208307 Wed, 22 Mar 06 04:07 AM

Your teacher is right.

Developing and maintaining positive relationships with families and the community are essential in promoting academic success.

benita

Joined on Mon, Jan 31 2005

India

Contributing Member (1,667)

But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep - Robert Frost

rishonly

#208343 Wed, 22 Mar 06 06:07 AM

Nikko wrote:

Please tell me which sentence is correct - I say the first but my teacher says the second. Please help!!

Developing and maintaining positive relationships with families and the community is essential in promoting academic success.

Developing and maintaining positive relationships with families and the community are essential in promoting academic success.

This is a duplicate post, and the question has been already answered.

rishonly

Joined on Sat, Mar 5 2005

KUMBAKONAM,INDIA

Contributing Member (1,781)

Regards, Krish

Mister Micawber

#208391 Wed, 22 Mar 06 08:29 AM

And I would also suggest that either the singular or plural verb form can be used, depending on the speaker's concept: whether 'developing and maintaining' represents a single process or two discrete steps.

(Sorry, I didn't see the other response, Rishonly. When you come upon such, could you provide a link if possible?)

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (21,105)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Plurals, Verbs

rishonly

#208393 Wed, 22 Mar 06 08:32 AM

Mister Micawber wrote:

And I would also suggest that either the singular or plural verb form can be used, depending on the speaker's concept: whether 'developing and maintaining' represents a single process or two discrete steps.

(Sorry, I didn't see the other response, Rishonly. When you come upon such, could you provide a link if possible?)

Infact, I thought of that, MM. Sure, I will do it in the future.

rishonly

Plurals, Verbs

Nikko

#208463 Wed, 22 Mar 06 02:17 PM

But if you reword it:

It is essential to develop and maintain positive relationships with families and the community in promoting academic success - "is" rather than "are" seems right. The verb should agree with the subject, no? And in this case the subject is "developing and maintaining" or "it" if reworded. Or am I missing a basic rule?

Thanks, I've never had much formal grammar training and usually rely on what sounds right. "Are" sounds awkward to me.

Nikko

Grammar, Verbs

Mister Micawber

#208480 Wed, 22 Mar 06 02:49 PM

It is essential to develop and maintain positive relationships with families and the community in promoting academic success.

You are indeed correct, but this sentence is not really comparable to the original; you are more than rewording-- you are restructuring here, Nikko. Now, the introductory it is the subject with which the singular verb is agrees, and, rearranged (To develop and maintain positive relationships with families and the community is essential in promoting academic success), the nonfinite clause equally becomes the singular subject of is.

Mister Micawber

Clauses, Singular verbs, Verbs

Anonymous

#209838 Sun, 26 Mar 06 09:59 PM

developing and maintaining - I think you are right and your teacher is wrong. If you look at developing and maintaing as a single action, anyway. which it isn't, really, but you are referring to a kind of compound action - developing and maintaining. If you said "the activities of maintaining and developing..." you would have to say are. But you are actually saying, effectively, developing-and-maintaining. Anyway, I'm not totally sure, but I think YOU are right and your teacher is wrong. It happens.

Anonymous

Matress

#209873 Mon, 27 Mar 06 12:20 AM

Nikko wrote:

Please tell me which sentence is correct - I say the first but my teacher says the second. Please help!!

Developing and maintaining positive relationships with families and the community is essential in promoting academic success.

Developing and maintaining positive relationships with families and the community are essential in promoting academic success.