In Verbs^x, Plural subject^x

You must be googling in Mongolia, Jack -- I get a million and a half hits for 'cars are', and 900,000 for 'cars is'. The latter figure is explained by looking at the grammar of the hits: the subject of 'cars is' is not 'cars', but a singular noun earlier in the sentences. 'Cars is what I need'...

Hi, Abbie, It may be unlikely that you, or anyone else for that matter, would have an occasion to use such a sentence, but let's look at it carefully anyway. There is John, whom I haven't seen in years, and Fred, my once-best friend, sitting on a park bench. If we remove the non-restrictive...

The question here concerns subject-verb agreement. Almost always the the verb agrees with the subject in number. We say "Homer rides into town" and "John and Homer ride into town." In the first sentence the 3rd person singular verb "rides" agrees with the singular subject "Homer," and in the...

I'm wondering what the differences are in the following sentences? I know(a) sounds awkward, but what about (b), (c)? open/opened... close/closed... (a) ???The mall is opened five days a week. Not at all awkward IF the meaning points to the fact that some person is in charge of opening the...

Hi, it's me, Ralf, the starter of this thread. Thanks for your answers so far. A post in another thread pointed me to the "American Heritage - Book of English Usage", where I found this section: According to the standard rule, when the pronoun there precedes a verb such as be, seem, or appear,...

In the first sentence, 'or' with two singular alternatives would require a singular verb, but 'titers' appears to be plural, so 'are' may be a more natural match; however, I would be happier if the plural subject were nearer the verb: 1) 'The presence of IgM antibody or rising titers of...

When it comes to mathematical equality, the underlying idea is that one quantity equals another. 4 + 5 + 1 = 10 (The quantity) four plus five plus one equals (the quantity) ten. Four and five and one equals ten. One and one is two. From a strict grammatical point of view, a plural subject...

Hello, Robert I would follow Word in this case. When "each" follows a plural subject, the verb usually agrees with the subject. Sentence #2 sounds correct to me. If the sentence started with "each of", "divide" would also be a good choice after a rather long plural subject: "Each of the...

Hi Melaine! Although i am learning english as a second language, i will try to explain your problem. Well your problem is related to "Subject-verb agreement". In every sentence subject and verb should agree with each other. Remember that Have is a plural auxiliary verb and Has is singular. So...

Singular subject -> singular verb Plural subject -> plural verb