In Numbers^x, Verbs^x

Hi May I quote an excerpt from M. Swan, 2005, Practical English Usage, 3rd edition . OUP. (para. 370.5 "Two negative ideas: not ... or / not ... nor") I posted some months ago in another thread? In the other thread, I think I learnt that: 1. neither ... nor ... / not ... or ... are...

Are you comfortable with, "A poor man such as I has little chance in the world."? A person previously referred to in the context is probably (no doubt) one of a number of similar cruel men, who have lost their godliness etc. The sentence seems to want a subject and verb. This person...

Sir, what is your advice in this paragraph? (link) http://en.ce.cn/Industries/Consumen-Industries/200806/05/t20080605_15736942.shtml The number of casinos in Macau has more than doubled to 29 since the government ended billionaire Stanley Ho's 40-year gaming monopoly in 2002 and awarded...

My tall Off-white in color, right wall gracefully hold the blue , wide window . Today, In these pleasent evening colors streaming in through this open window, I feel much relaxed --light as fur, the dark clouds of stress and fatigue seemingly fading away. There are a number of problems here....

(Again, I should emphasise that these are just my personal views. Some of the questions have no "right" and "wrong" answers, and other people may have different opinions.) 1. Sitting at my writing desk placed right-hand side of open window, and working on my English...

. It seems an awkward word choice here, and I would avoid it except for its more standard uses (as in vote counting). However, I suppose that where it means 'a number of' it would take a plural verb, and where it means 'the number of', it would take a singular verb.

It's the active decision to get better and the number of hours you push yourself to improve that make the difference. Because of 'and' a plural verb ('make') is required.

. These are all OK because the two verbs each have two forms, a stative (#A and 3) and a dynamic (#1,2 and 4) form, with different meanings.

Hi ganesh, You'll find that this has been discussed a lot in here. The number of X IS -- emphasis on the quantity itself. The number of people attending is higher than last year. The number of students per teacher is lower in my school than in the Philadelphia schools. A number of Y...

A member of our staff has asked for a holiday. A number of people have asked for a holiday. In this first sentence, the verb agrees with 'member'. Compare: A member has.. A member of our staff has.. In the second sentence, the verb agrees with 'people'. Yet compare: A number...