Plural nouns/pronouns/antecedents accompanied by singular verbs

Great improvements can be achieved if you have someone to guide and police your work in English.




Subject-verb disagreements or plural nouns/pronouns/antecedents accompanied by singular verbs have remained common grammatical mistakes found in writings.

Below is one of the many examples noted in a print advertisement which contains the sentence reading, "We are experts in creating fearless appliances that weathers the elements."

The word 'appliances' is a noun plural in form being the antecedent of the relative pronoun 'that' which must be used with a plural verb. The sentence in question should, therefore, be "We are experts in creating fearless appliances that weather the elements."

A famous writer once observed that mistakes could still be found even after self-editing the writer's own writing for six times.

Vigilance is the key if we do not have the help of a capable editor.

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.
-- David Hume

Everyone is a singular pronoun

If children can be taught to use proper English, that will result in better chances of raising our standard of English.




Please encourage the use of proper words and sentences in our daily conversation.

The above is a call in a letter published in the Opinion Column of a popular national English daily.

MY wife is expecting twins and everyone in the family are so happy. This is the first sentence of another letter in the same column on the same day.

Everyone is a pronoun which is singular in form and, therefore, has to be accompanied by a singular verb 'is' instead of 'are'.

However, if the plural verb 'are' is to be used, the sentence can be recast as "My wife is expecting twins and all in the family are so happy."

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
-- Aristotle

Who or Whom - Many writers find it confusing to make the correct choice

Due attention must be paid to avoid grammatical mistakes for effective communication.




In a newspaper article touching on people with disabilities, the following question appears on its sub-headline, "Who then can the disabled turn to for help?"

You can answer the question in order to know whether "who" or "whom" is to be used.

Can the answer be 'The disabled can turn to "he" for help'? Obviously, the answer is not correct grammatically as the pronoun after the preposition "to" cannot be in the subjective case. It must be in the objective case which is "him".

The said question should, therefore, be "Whom then can the disabled turn to for help?"


If we don't change our direction we're likely to end up where we're headed.
-- Chinese Proverb

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.