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singular or plural? what concern(s)

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Maple  #488277  Thu, 13 Mar 08 05:16 AM

A) What concerns me is two facts.

B) What concern me are two facts.

Which one is correct?   

(I find there exists a paradox. A can be correct, because the predicate accords not to the object, but to the subject, whose morph seems singular. B can also be correct, because what can be substituted with "things which", thus the subject is plural.  What do you think?

Thanks in advance!

 

  
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Yoong Liat  #488294  Thu, 13 Mar 08 05:48 AM

To me,  (A) is correct.

  
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Maple  #488480  Thu, 13 Mar 08 02:35 PM
Thank you, Yoong Liat!

 

I googled "what concern me" site:www.nytimes.com  and found this:

These people  - their footprints, actually - are what concern me now. I said they follow the trail, and strictly speaking this is true. ...

 

Any more comments?

 

  
Marius Hancu  #488483  Thu, 13 Mar 08 02:41 PM
The idiomatic expression is:

 What concerns me (is)

so that A follows automatically.  

  
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Yoong Liat  #488511  Thu, 13 Mar 08 03:36 PM

What sometimes seems to have a plural force but nevertheless requires a singular verb. Clearly we would say What is needed is a spotlight, but what if spotlights - the plural form - is used.instead.

The options are these:

    What is needed here is spotlights.

?  What are needed are spotlights.

X  What is needed are spotlights.

The first construction, with both verbs in the singular, is the best by far.

(The Right Word at the Right Time)

  
Grammar Geek  #488513  Thu, 13 Mar 08 03:41 PM

Honestly, in cases like this - rewrite! There are two facts that concern me.

  
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Maple  #488551  Thu, 13 Mar 08 04:51 PM

Thank you YL, MH, and GG! Your comments are all very helpful indeed!

  
Kooyeen  #488585  Thu, 13 Mar 08 06:57 PM

Maple

googled "what concern me" site:www.nytimes.com  and found this:

These people  - their footprints, actually - are what concern me now. I said they follow the trail, and strictly speaking this is true. ...




Hi,
I once read that's sometimes possible (in certain structures), but it doesn't seem very common to me, so I never use a plural verb with "what" (--> what concerns me, what is needed
, what happens, etc.)

What concerns me is all those people out there who claim Hilary is obviously the only good choice.
What concerns me are all those people out there who claim Hilary is
obviously the only good choice.

You can use either a singular or a plural verb (those in bold), but I am not sure how good the singular sounds in some of those cases. I'm afraid I would almost always chose the plural.
Smile
  
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Goodman  #488604  Thu, 13 Mar 08 09:54 PM

Kooyeen,

 

In the parallel pattern, “what bothers me the most…”, or “what kills me the most…, is frequently treated as a singular scenario. “what concerns me is …” should be treated likewise. What follows could be singular or plural which should be separate from this structure. Since “what” is unknown, it should be treated as singular, such as “ who is coming for dinner?” or “who is the father of this child?”.  (B) Beer

  
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