I was sent a query today. Here it is:

>''That I am late, that I
> am cold, that I am hungry MAKES/MAKE no difference.''  Is this a compound
> subject requiring a plural verb, or is this essentially three separate
> single subjects, each requiring a singlular verb with two of them
> ''understood''?

I know from my gut intuitions about English that 'makes' is the correct
verb form, but that seems illogical. Can anyone tell me what's going on
with this sentence? Even doing some twists doesn't change the agreement:

'That I am late, and that I am cold, and that I am hungry MAKES no
difference.' ('make' sounds bad to me here)
'The fact that I am late, the fact that I am cold, and the fact that I
am hungry MAKES no difference ..'

'All of _this_ makes no difference.' seems the suitable paraphrase, not
'All of these make no difference'

But: 'These three facts MAKE no difference.'

?

Johanna

p.s. Re: the long grammar discussion ... I'm listening. Can you doubt
that, sooner or later, I will put my two cents (or, as usual, two
dollars) in?  :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
                                       **
"Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
but that's not why people do it normally"  -            Frank  Oppenheimer
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