A colleague sent me this inquiry:

The following sentence appeared in a wire-service bit in today's paper, from a quoted source: “From time to time, there is one or two who take their chances.” At first glance, this looks like an agreement error. However, I think the “rule” is that when a compound subject is joined by or, the verb agrees with the part of the compound that’s closer to it. Hence, “There is one or two” is correct. By the same logic, perhaps, the verb take is closer to two than to one and is also correct. Or, to look at it another way, who, which is really the subject of take, is plural because it is closer to two than to one. Would you care to weigh in on this?

I sent him my view, but I am curious to hear the takes of ATEGers on this. What do y'all think?



Dick Veit

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/