{"id":2592,"date":"2017-11-15T00:58:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T06:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=2592"},"modified":"2020-11-25T11:25:25","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T17:25:25","slug":"sentence-subjects-looking-past-nouns-and-strict-verb-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/sentence-subjects-looking-past-nouns-and-strict-verb-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentence Subjects: Looking Past Nouns and Strict Verb Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sentence subjects are typically obvious in English grammar. Many are nouns, and they take corresponding plural or singular verbs.<\/span><\/p>\n

How then do we identify and explain the parts of speech in the following sentences?<\/p>\n

1. Buying houses and flipping them has been netting him a small fortune.
\n2. To be alone is to find true knowledge of oneself.
\n3. My mentor and friend has retired after 30 years of loyal service.
\n4. Who had removed the page from the file was creating much debate.<\/p>\n

Other grammatical elements beyond nouns can serve as sentence subjects. They also can bend the rules of subject-verb agreement.<\/p>\n

Sentence 1 leads with\u00a0Buying house<\/em>s and\u00a0flipping them<\/em>, both\u00a0gerund<\/a>\u00a0phrases, verbs functioning as nouns and taking direct objects.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also note the sentence verb,\u00a0has been netting,<\/em>\u00a0is singular. If the sentence has a compound gerund subject (buying\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0flipping<\/em>), the verb should be plural, right? In this case, the two gerunds combine as one unit and therefore command a singular verb.<\/p>\n

Another sentence including similar information could be written as\u00a0Buying houses and flipping them have been netting\u00a0<\/em>(plural verb)\u00a0him a small fortune<\/em>. Both the plural and the singular treatments are grammatically acceptable according to the writer\u2019s intent.<\/p>\n

In sentence 2, the subject is an\u00a0infinitive\u00a0<\/a>phrase, the word\u00a0to\u00a0<\/em>plus the present form of a verb, also called the infinitive stem. The subject,\u00a0To be alone<\/em>, is followed by the linking verb\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>and then by another infinitive phrase as the subject complement (to find true knowledge of oneself<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Sentence 3 includes what appears to be another compound subject,\u00a0mentor and friend<\/em>, and yet the verb is singular. This is because one person was two things\u2014a mentor and a friend\u2014to the writer, creating one unit with plural components and a singular verb. Here too we have acceptable grammatical style determined by context and meaning.<\/p>\n

In the last sentence, the subject is an entire relative clause,\u00a0Who had removed the page from the file.<\/em>\u00a0In this example, one clause serves as a singular unit and corresponds with a singular verb,\u00a0was creating.<\/em>\u00a0Other relative pronouns that can lead clausal sentence subjects include\u00a0whom, whose, whoever, which, whichever, what, whatever,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0that.<\/em><\/p>\n

Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whose shoes were on the front porch<\/em>\u00a0perplexes the investigators.
\nWhat songs the band will play\u00a0<\/em>remains unknown even to those close to the group.
\n
\nWe see that sentence subjects can extend well beyond nouns, and subject-verb agreement can sometimes adjust based on whether the writer wishes to group or separate compound items. This understanding adds to our grammatical toolbox and further enhances our expressive versatility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

Identify either the type of subject or the correct verb in the following sentences:
\n
\n1) To run for local office (gerund phrase \/ infinitive phrase) has always been his ambition.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) That they are gifted guitarists (relative clause \/ gerund phrase) is obvious.<\/p>\n

3) Hunting and fishing (is \/ are) my favorite (way \/ ways) to spend a day off.<\/p>\n

4) Reading three books a week (infinitive phrase \/ gerund phrase) keeps her intellectually sharp.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) To run for local office (gerund phrase \/\u00a0infinitive phrase<\/strong>) has always been his ambition.
\n
\n2) That they are gifted guitarists (relative clause<\/strong>\u00a0\/ gerund phrase) is obvious.<\/span><\/p>\n

3) Hunting and fishing (is<\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0are<\/strong>) my favorite (way<\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0ways<\/strong>) to spend a day off.
\nBoth the singular (is<\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0way<\/strong>) and the plural (are<\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0ways<\/strong>) would be grammatically accurate according to the writer\u2019s intent.
\n
\n4) Reading three books a week (infinitive phrase \/\u00a0gerund phrase<\/strong>) keeps her intellectually sharp.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sentence subjects are typically obvious in English grammar. Many are nouns, and they take corresponding plural or singular verbs. How then do we identify and explain the parts of speech in the following sentences? 1. Buying houses and flipping them has been netting him a small fortune. 2. To be alone is to find true […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,26,43,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pronouns","category-singular-vs-plural","category-subject-and-verb-agreement","category-verbs"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}