By Singular verbs, Noun phrases

Hi LiJ,Perhaps you caught that error in my recent post. It was illogical for me to write "more than (one options)."Since I made that error, it is better for me to borrow this text from The American Heritage Book of English Usage to share with you: "Here’s a riddle: How can you have...

Both are fine. Here is what the American Heritage Dictionary has to say:USAGE NOTE: Every is representative of a large class of English words and expressions that are singular in form but felt to be plural in sense. The class includes, for example, noun phrases introduced by every, any, and...

"ignoring the historical fact of these terrible events increase(s) the risk they will be repeated" Being late makes me mad.Ignoring me makes me sad. "Ignoring" is the subject, and takes the singular verb, increases. It's easy, when you have a complex noun phrase, to lose track of what the...

Let me quote from 'Fowler's Modern English Usage'. The expression a number of + plural noun as in a number of people NORMALLY takes a plural verb in both BrE and AmE, because the plural noun is regarded as the 'head' of the noun phrase and therefore as the real subject: A number of books by...

Well guys, looks like every one here goes witha singular verb but American Heritage says it should be have. Actually I saw this sentence in Americam Heritage but couldn't figure out why is it so. Following is the passage; Every is representative of a large class of English words and...

Just for additional information, here is the usage notes from a dictionary : When what is the subject of a clause, it may be construed as singular or plural, depending on the sense. It is singular when taken as the equivalent of that which or the thing which, as in I see what seems to be a dead...

Hello KhoffI take it the first question you raised is related to the issue of subject-verb concord (or agreement). The subject-verb concord in English is really tough to acquire for me, a Japanese, whose mother tongue has no distinction in verbal forms for singular and plural subjects. My grammar...

The prescriptive rule has it that 'neither' and 'either' take the singular verb, so "Neither has windows" ('neither' is the subject) and "Either one of them has it" ('one' is the subject). In everyday conversation, however, it is quite common to hear the plural verb with 'neither' if a plural...

Hello Guest! As an answer to this question I would like to quote an article of the American Heritage Book of English Grammar agreement by proximity. Certain grammatical constructions provide further complications. Sometimes the noun that is adjacent to the verb can exert more influence than...

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,...