From: Dick Veit <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sun, January 20, 2013 10:21:27 AM
Subject: Re: Subject/verb agreement
What this discussion demonstrates is that simple rules are not always quite so simple, and that conceptual understanding trumps a literal application of rules.
The simple rule is: "A verb must agree in number with the head noun of the subject."
Taken literally, we'd have to say "an estimated 210,000
gallons a day
are coming" [we also wouldn't be able to use "an"] and "a
slew of officials
has been exposed." But in the former we are not picturing individual gallons but a mass of oil. The reverse is true in the latter, where we see individuals, not a mass.
We
can illustrate this notion with the following sentences, where a change in the verb's number alters meaning:
1. Six glasses of wine is bad.
2. Six glasses of wine are bad.
The first, we're thinking an overindulgence resulting in inebriation; the second, a critique at a wine tasting.
Dick
On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 2:27 AM, John Chorazy
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Without my own comments on these sentences or a longer preface, I'll just submit them and ask for your thoughts on subject/verb agreement. Thank you...
According to NOAA, an estimated 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) a day is coming from the remaining ruptures (PBS).
In recent months, a slew of low-level Communist officials as well as a few high ranking ones —most notably the vice party chief of the southwestern province of Sichuan, Li Chuncheng — have been exposed by local media and dismissed from their positions after their sexual peccadilloes came to light (NBC News).
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