Hello everyone,

I'm having a debate with a colleague regarding this sentence:

   These personality traits are what prevent John from doing a better job.

One of us says the verb ("prevent") is correct, because it agrees 
with "personality traits". The other one says it should be 
"prevents", because the verb should agree with "what".

During the debate a similar construction was used as a basis for discussion:

   These are the personality traits that prevent John from doing a better job.

In this case, we coincide that "personality traits" and "prevent" are 
in agreement, and that is correct. But the use of "what" in the 
original sentence changes things, because "that" only introduces a 
clause, while "what" is replacing a noun phrase, such as "the elements that".

Could anyone shed some light on the issue?

Thanks in advance,

Roberto Perez
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