Now if I look up "are," the dictionary tells me that it is the present plural of "be." But what I would expect is that it would tell me that it is the present plural of "am" or "is" because those are the

Apparently I did not explain myself well enough. If you look up a word in the dictionary like "eaten", if it is listed at all, they will reference you to the first person singular, "eat". My understanding is that this is the

Pleasehelp: Many usage experts explain that "public" takes a singular verb in American English; a plural verb in British English. You will also notice this with other words, such as "government."

Many years ago in English class, I learned that if a person were talking about a dream or if the person used the word "if", than the verb would be plural and not singular, i.e. I wish I were a dancer. I dreamed I were a

The answer to your question is probably not as clearcut as you'd like it to be: Couple can take either the singular or plural verb. It all depends on whether the couple is seen as one social unit ( a married couple) or whether the members

No, Jones is the subject - the hand is the direct object. Joes is doing the action; the hand is receiving the action.

Why is it always singular? When it means something plural... An explanation would be nice! ... would be nice, maybe, but there is no explanation -- nothing you might find very satisfactory, anyway. Finding an explanation for something that just

<p>Am teaching English in Korea and came here via Google to check the common American usage for the plural Shrimp. I am British and would naturally use plural Shrimp, but I know that some use Shrimps. It appears that Shrimp is common in many

Hi CB, Thanks for pointing out the spelling thing! I think it comes from my native language, where we write " socio-economico " or " socio-economica " (depending on whether the adjective qualifies a masculine or feminine noun

ARE there going to be a lot of people at the party? = A lot of (many) people ARE going to be at the party. (l) "People" in English takes a plural verb ("The people are very happy") (2) The "there" is used to introduce