It's been barely a month since my last litany of subject-verb agreement errors, but the file is overflowing once again. The topic is tedious, the errors exasperating. Readers notice and find it hard to understand why we make so many rather rudimentary mistakes. A good question.
Here's the entry from The Times's stylebook, which describes some of the pitfalls:
number of subject and verb. After a neither-nor construction, if the subjects are both singular, use a singular verb: Neither Dana nor Dale was happy. If the subjects are both plural, use a plural verb: Neither the Yankees nor the Mets were hitting. If one subject is singular and the other plural, use the number of the one nearer the verb: Neither the man nor his horses were ever seen again.
A verb that merely connects two elements in a sentence takes the number of the preceding noun or pronoun, which is the subject: Her specialty was singing and dancing and playing the violin. The verb most often used this way is to be. Others that can serve as connectors include appear, become, feel, look, seem, smell and taste. When the subject is the pronoun what, the writer must decide whether to construe it as the thing that (singular) or the things that (plural). Once the decision is made, all affected verbs must conform: What was remarkable was the errors made on both sides; What were most in demand were language ability and a degree in Russian studies.
When a verb is far removed from its subject, especially if another noun intervenes, mistakes like this may occur: The value of Argentina's exports to the United States are 183 million pesos. The verb should be singular because its subject (value) is singular.
Misidentification of the subject also causes trouble: Terry Cordeiro is one of those people who goes in for striking colors. The verb should be go, since the subject is who, which refers to the plural people. Test such constructions by reversing them: Of those people who go in for striking colors, Terry Cordeiro is one.
Sums of money are usually treated as singular because the focus is on the sum, not on individual bills or coins: Ten dollars buys less now than five did then. Similarly: Five pounds of rice feeds a family of four for a week (because the pounds are not counted one by one). Use the plural when the focus is on individual items: Three hundred parcels of food were shipped.
Total of or number of (and a few similar expressions, like series of) may take either a plural or a singular verb. In general, when the expression follows a, it is plural: A total of 102 people were injured; A number of people were injured. When the expression follows the, it is usually singular: The total of all department budgets is $187 million; The number of passengers injured was later found to be 12.
If couple conveys the idea of two people, treat it as a plural: The couple were married. But: Each couple was asked to give $10.
And here are some of the latest lapses:
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DVDs and, before that, VHS tapes have allowed audiences to catch up on shows for a long time - in fact, the popularity of “Family Guy†DVDs were partly credited with the 2005 revival of the once-canceled Fox animated comedy.
Here's perhaps the most common problem - an intervening phrase that throws us off track so we forget whether the real subject is singular or plural. Make it “the popularity … was partly credited.â€
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Another tipping point were reports that Clarence Norman Jr., a former chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party and former assemblyman who was convicted of accepting illegal campaign contributions, had helped Mr. Thompson's get-out-the-vote effort, Mr. Hynes's spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer, said.
The subject, which determines the number of the verb, is the singular “tipping point.†Don't be led astray by the predicate noun “reports.â€
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[Subheading] While Capitol Hill grinds to a halt, research and innovation suffers.
Occasionally two nouns joined by “and†are so closely linked that they can be treated grammatically as one unit: Whiskey and soda is my favorite drink. But normally such a compound subject is plural; make it “research and innovation suffer.â€
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Charles Townsend, the chief executive of Condé Nast, was there as well. Oh, and so was David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker; Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair; Stefano Tonchi, the editor of W; and Jim Nelson, the editor of GQ. …
The inverted word order apparently confused us; make it “were†to agree with the compound subject that follows.
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Michael Douglas was in the house. So was Mick Jagger and Al Pacino.
The very same problem. Mick and Al were, not was.
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Decades of experience with Medicaid, the program for low-income people, show that having an insurance card does not guarantee access to specialists or other providers.
Here's a subtler problem. “Decades†is plural and seems to require the plural verb “show.†But the phrase “decades of experience†describes an amount or extent of experience, not a number of separate items. So treat it as a singular: “Decades of experience … shows.â€
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Laurence H. Tribe, a law professor at Harvard, is one of the skeptics who agrees with the White House.
No roundup of agreement problems is complete without this oft-bungled construction. The verb in the relative clause should be plural: of the skeptics who agree with the White House, Tribe is one.
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More recently, the Shabab have put Kenya in its cross hairs, especially after Kenya sent thousands of troops into Somalia in 2011 to chase the Shabab away from its borders and then kept those troops there as part of a larger African Union mission to pacify Somalia.
Don't treat the same word as singular and plural in the same sentence. Shabab is correct as a plural, so make it “the Shabab have put Kenya in their cross hairs.â€
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In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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WASHINGTON - To Speaker John A. Boehner, it is “job-killing.†To Senator Ted Cruz, it is “hurting the American people.†To Senator Mitch McConnell, it is a “big reason we are turning into a nation of part-time workers.â€
But to many independent economic analysts, it remains too early to tell how the sweeping Affordable Care Act will affect the jobs market.
The “its†in the first graf all refer to the same thing. But the next “it†involves a different construction and does not have the same antecedent, so the whole passage is muddled.
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On many of these cases, the outcome may depend again on a single vote - and often, but not always, that means Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote decided more 5-4 cases than any other member of the court last year.
The comparison is not parallel; it compares “vote†to “member.†One simple revision: “whose vote decided more 5-4 cases than any other justice's last year.â€
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And while keeping guns out of their hands won't put an end to gun violence, it might at least mitigate against these ritual slaughters of innocent people.
Not the right word. Here's what the stylebook says:
militate, mitigate. Militate against something means exert weight or effect against it: High taxes militate against relocating the plant. Mitigate, which means ease or soften, is never the word to use with against: Tax reductions mitigated the financial pressure.
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“Save us from the madness,†the chaplain, a Seventh-day Adventist, former Navy rear admiral and collector of brightly colored bow ties named Barry C. Black, said one day late last week as he warmed up into what became an epic ministerial scolding.
O.K., I get the point, but it does look as though the bow ties are named Barry C. Black.
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Video footage from local television stations showed the bus on its side, blocking lanes of traffic, with the tractor-trailer partly off the road. Dozens of emergency vehicles surrounded the wreckage, which smoldered for hours.
“Video footage†seems redundant here.
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In another case, Mr. Ulbricht is accused of asking an undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to kill a former Silk Road employee whom Mr. Ulbricht feared would become a government witness, according to an indictment.
Make it “who,†the subject of “would become.â€
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While there is little evidence about how racism, sexual assault or drinking at Dartmouth really compare with its peers, it is undeniably different in several ways beyond the popularity of the Greek system.
The compound subject with “or†is singular, so the verb should be “compares.†But the bigger problem is that the comparison is not parallel. Rephrase to compare Dartmouth with its peers, or the problems of Dartmouth with the problems of its peers.
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Virtually every major turn in the legal process has sparked riots, either by Islamist or secularist protesters, and the authorities on Tuesday had increased security in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, and in Chittangong, Mr. Chowdhury's native region.
Parallelism problem. Make it “by either Islamist or secularist protesters.â€
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Under the high ceilings, the fluorescent lights still bright, there were just15 or so industrial sewing machines in a sprawling space meant for triple that amount.
Make it “triple that number†or “three times as many.â€
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Twitter has several women vice presidents in business, not technical, roles …
Avoid “women†as a modifier. Make it “female vice presidents†or “women as vice presidents.â€
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Ms. Kirshenbaum, a single parent to two adopted Guatemalan daughters and two cats, lives in a 13-by-30-foot row house near downtown Philadelphia.
The adoptive status of the children doesn't appear relevant and so should not be included.
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As trainees in a large teaching hospital, we knew numerous sales reps by name and the products they pedaled; and it was odd, even disappointing, to go to an educational conference where one of them was not standing next to a table laden with tchotchkes, information brochures and free take-out.
Peddled, not pedaled.
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In short, setting up the ideal home network is often easier said than done. There are ways, however, to make it less aggravating and more reliable.
See the stylebook entry:
aggravate. It means make worse, not anger or irritate.
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Not long ago, I met five young Yale alumna at a Vietnamese restaurant in Cambridge.
“Alumna†is singular; the plural (for women) is “alumnae.â€
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The case, which is being coordinated by federal prosecutors in New York, is part of a larger push by federal authorities to police elicit commerce along the frontier of the Internet.
Illicit, not elicit, of course.
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But the Supreme Court's ruling on the health care law last year, while upholding it, allowed states to choose whether to expand Medicaid. Those that opted not to leave about eight million uninsured people who live in poverty ($19,530 for a family of three) without any assistance at all.
The phrasing was confusing because it's natural to read “to leave†together as an infinitive. Rephrase, perhaps like this: “Those that opted not to expand the program leave about …â€
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The stumbles have proved particularly challenging because they arrived with Metro-North already at a crossroads. The railroad, which was brought under the transportation authority's auspices in 1983, has endured a spate of departures that have left several positions either vacant or filled by less-experienced employees.
The hyphen wasn't necessary.
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She was the eldest daughter of one of the only black families in Longmeadow, Mass., who arrived home to see their new house scrawled with racist graffiti. …
They are, in their relationship, their politics and, above all, their lifestyle, a striking departure from the city's reining pair, Michael R. Bloomberg and Diana L. Taylor, his longtime girlfriend.
Avoid the illogical expression “one of the onlyâ€; make it “one of the few.†Also, we meant “reigning,†not “reining†(fixed in later editions).
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Mr. Boehner even mocked the president on Monday for refusing to negotiate over health reform, as if he actually expected Mr. Obama to join in wrecking a law that will provide health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans under threat of blackmail.
Watch where you put those prepositional phrases; neither the provision of health care nor the millions of Americans are under threat of blackmail.
