Subject-Verb Disagreements and Misplaced Modifiers often seen in Newspapers

Newspapers always strive to provide striking news/headlines which must, however, be grammatical and unambiguous, to attract readers.



Sentences in newspapers are frequently found to contain the irregularies mentioned above.

Quoted below are two examples taken from a national daily on the same day:-

(1) For the millions of people, dreadful train rides is a price they must pay.

(2) He admitted to spying on the 40-year-old woman by switching his mobile phone to video mode and placing it on a pipe under the basin in a toilet of the restaurant where he worked on July 25 last year.

In sentence (1), the subject rides which is a plural noun is accompanied by a singular verb is. The sentence should have been - For the millions of people, dreadful train ride is a price they must pay.

In (2), on July 25 last year (an adverb phrase of time) can be seen to modify worked while it actually modifies spying. Hence, the sentence should have been He admitted to spying on the 40-year-old woman on July 25 last year by switching his mobile phone to video mode and placing it on a pipe under the basin in a toilet of the restaurant where he worked.

There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
-- Charles Dickens

Inconsistency betraying many writers including experienced ones

Consistency is, like teamwork in an organisation, providing the required connections of ideas in writing.

Shown below are the first two sentences of a paragraph taken from an article written by a professional writer in a popular national English daily.

How can a good client trust an agency that gives away free ideas instead of building their own agency brand? No client should engage an agency to guard his brand when it can't do the same for themselves.

In the first of the two adjoining sentences above, agency is a body treated in the plural form with the use of the plural pronoun their. However, the one following this has seen the inconsistent use of a singular pronoun it.

To be consistent, the two adjoining sentences should have been : How can a good client trust an agency that gives away free ideas instead of building their own agency brand? No client should engage an agency to guard his brand when they can't do the same for themselves.

Adversity brings knowledge, and knowledge brings wisdom.
-- Welsh Proverb


Here are wishes to all for a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year.

Singular versus plural

Effective communication is better achieved with the use of a proper language.


History has shown that there has been more than a hundred distinct banking crisis in the recent two decades.

The above sentence is found in an article appearing in a popular national English daily.

'A hundred' is more than one in number. However, a singular verb is used before such a number and followed by a singular noun thereafter.

Rules of grammar require that the said sentence be recast to make it proper: History has shown that there have been more than a hundred distinct banking crises in the recent two decades.

There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
-- Oscar Wilde

What is stated in a Speech/Interview needs recasting when reduced to writing

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Oral communication tends to be less formal.

Moving forward, health and environment-friendly products is our direction.

The above appears to be what is said by an interviewee in a report appearing in a popular English daily.

In official writing, that has to be recasted to avoid two grammatical mistakes namely misplaced modifier and subject-verb disagreement. Do you hold a different opinion?

A grammatical sentence would read: Moving forward, we'll focus our direction in health and environment-friendly products.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.-- Herman Melville

Pronoun creating ambiguity

Which direction do you go to arrive at the correct meaning?




Japan isn't happy about the yen's allure. It threatens to push the economy back toward deflation.

The above adjoining sentences are taken from an article in a popular English daily.

The first word "It" in the second sentence is referring to 'Japan' or 'yen's allure'. Can you know for sure? Apparently, it can represent both thus causing ambiguity.

Not a single country would like to push its economy back toward deflation which has, therefore, to be caused by a certain event - yen's allure in this instance.

Hence, the correct message is better reflected in this case in one sentence as Japan isn't happy about the yen's allure which threatens to push the economy back toward deflation.

If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?
-- Anonymous