Search results for 'tag:Football tag:Singular verbs' matching tags 'Football' and 'Singular verbs'

Re: My friends are what make(s) me happy

Kooyeen — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 13:49:46 GMT

Yeah, thanks Alienvoord.

I surfed the Net quite a lot in search of some examples, and it seems there's no rules for that. This is what I got from the Net:

What make/makes me happy are my friends --- It seems makes (i.e. singular verbs) is the most used.
My friends are what make/makes me happy --- It seems both are used the same way. Personally, I think it depends on whether we consider "friends" as a whole or as separate people.

So I think we could say both "Football and girls are what makes me feel better" (the thing that makes me feel better), and "Football and girls are what make me feel better" (the things that make me feel better).

If anybody want to give their opinion, I'll appreciate that.

Re: Do or Does Manchester United usually win?

MrPedantic — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 01:23:09 GMT

Hello Anon

In BrE, it would be more usual to say:

1. Manchester United are running out onto the pitch.

2. Manchester United is one of the great English football clubs.

In #1, Man. Utd is a group of people: hence the plural verb. (If you say "is running", it conjures up the image of a many-legged conga.)

In #2, Man. Utd is an entity: hence the singular verb.

Some speakers of BrE insist on a singular verb in all contexts, though.

(With luck, some AmE speakers will pass by shortly.)

MrP

Re: Factors have conspired or factors has conspired

MrPedantic — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 23:46:57 GMT

Not at all, Rolebra â there are plenty of strong disagreements on this site! They keep things ticking over.

Although BrE speakers tend towards plural verbs with collective nouns (e.g. football teams, companies), a hefty minority will always choose the singular. But even amongst those, 'number + singular verb' would probably be quite unusual. So I'm interested to hear that #2 would be a reasonable choice in AmE.

I agree about 'if I were/if I was', and what you hear when you're growing up. I found myself in the middle of a discussion only a couple of weeks ago, where one (BrE) party was fiercely refusing to believe that 'if I were' could ever be grammatically correct.

I look forward to your future posts!

MrP