While writing recently, I came across a situation where a character said: There’s a lot of chandeliers in here. When editing, I realized that I wanted to have the sentence sound more formal, and chose to remove the contraction to do so, which is when I realized that it would become: There are a lot … Read more
I recently attended a grammar class, where the trainer explained: A singular noun and a singular noun take a plural verb. However, I feel it should have been A singular noun and a singular noun takes a plural verb. because the two singular nouns together take the verb, and they cannot be considered two different … Read more
Should I use “have” or “has” in this question? Does she have to go to school? or Does she has to go to school? If I should use “have”, then what is the rule which makes me not use “has” here? Answer Does is the inflected verb here. It has the s because it is … Read more
I’m editing an article about the Battle of Agincourt. The author quotes his source as follows: The Memoires de Pierre de Fenin place the battle “between Maisoncelles and Agincourt”. “Memoires” [memoirs] is obviously plural, but the title refers to a single book. So I’m a little confused over the verb agreement. Pierre de Fenin’s memoirs … Read more
I can not figure out what the correct usage of allow/allows is in this case. Using plural allow(s) me to… Would “allow(s)” refer back to the plural and thus be “allow”? or does it refer back to the action of using the plural and thus be “allows”? An example could be something like: “Using old … Read more
I’m posting this question to settle a debate. Is the sentence, “If there are three of an unparalleled thing, is any of them truly unparalleled?” correct? The sentence throws me off because the first clause has a plural subject, but the second clause has a singular subject. My personal preference would be to make the … Read more
A coworker is writing a sentence like Sally, but especially Joe, enjoys questions about grammar and usage. He thinks it should be Sally, but especially Joe, enjoy questions about grammar and usage. Leaving aside the possibility of rewriting the sentence, I want to understand which part of the subject controls the verb’s number. Consider the … Read more
When concluding an essay, I wrote “what has been discussed are three major advantages of xxx”. But I doubt if “what has been discussed is three major advantages of xxx” is more correct? Answer The following “Grammarphobia” blog post provides a summary of what some resources say about how to inflect verbs for grammatical number … Read more
This cartoon was recently posted on Facebook. My sister (who is a retired HS English teacher) says the grammar is wrong and that the correct wording should be: “Neither one of us is.” but I disagree. I am not an English teacher but I believe that “US” relates to “WE” and the correct wording for … Read more
In writing about the National Archives, I got to wondering about subject-verb agreement. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA, often called simply The National Archives) is one entity, but when using the nickname, it would appear at first glance to be plural. So, even though Archives is plural, because it is a single entity, … Read more
