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Sentence Subjects: Looking Past Nouns and Strict Verb Agreement
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 knowledge of oneself.
3. My mentor and friend has retired after 30 years of loyal service.
4. Who had removed the page from the file was creating much debate.
Other grammatical elements beyond nouns can serve as sentence subjects.
They also can bend the rules of subject-verb agreement.
Sentence 1 leads with Buying houses and flipping them,
both gerund
phrases, verbs functioning as nouns and taking direct objects.
You’ll also note the sentence verb, has been netting, is
singular. If the sentence has a compound gerund subject (buying
and flipping), the verb should be plural, right? In this case, the
two gerunds combine as one unit and therefore command a singular verb.
Another sentence including similar information could be written as Buying houses and flipping them have been netting (plural verb) him a small fortune. Both the plural and the singular treatments are grammatically acceptable according
to the writer’s intent.
In sentence 2, the subject is an
infinitive
phrase, the word to plus the present form of a verb, also called
the infinitive stem. The subject, To be alone, is followed by the
linking verb is and then by another infinitive phrase as the
subject complement (to find true knowledge of oneself).
Sentence 3 includes what appears to be another compound subject, mentor and friend, and yet the verb is singular. This is because
one person was two things—a mentor and a friend—to the writer,
creating one unit with plural components and a singular verb. Here too we
have acceptable grammatical style determined by context and meaning.
In the last sentence, the subject is an entire relative clause, Who had removed the page from the file. In this example, one
clause serves as a singular unit and corresponds with a singular verb, was creating. Other relative pronouns that can lead clausal
sentence subjects include whom, whose, whoever, which, whichever, what, whatever, and that.
Examples
Whose shoes were on the front porch
perplexes the investigators.
What songs the band will play
remains unknown even to those close to the group.
We 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.
Because of the e-newsletter’s large readership, please submit your comments or questions regarding today's (or any past) article through GrammarBook.com’s Grammar Blog
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Pop Quiz
Identify either the type of subject or the correct verb in the following sentences:
1) To run for local office (gerund phrase / infinitive phrase) has always been his ambition.
2) That they are gifted guitarists (relative clause / gerund phrase) is obvious.
3) Hunting and fishing (is / are) my favorite (way / ways) to spend a day off.
4) Reading three books a week (infinitive phrase / gerund phrase) keeps her intellectually sharp.
Happy Thanksgiving
In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, we will not be issuing an e-newsletter next week. We will resume on November 29. We wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, and we hope you have a wonderful time with family and friends.
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Wordplay
Pop Quiz Answers
1) To run for local office (gerund phrase / infinitive phrase) has always been his ambition.
2) That they are gifted guitarists (relative clause /
gerund phrase) is obvious.
3) Hunting and fishing (is / are) my favorite (way / ways) to spend a day off.
Both the singular (is / way) and the plural (are / ways) would be grammatically accurate according to the writer’s intent.
4) Reading three books a week (infinitive phrase / gerund phrase) keeps her intellectually sharp.
Learn all about who and whom, affect and effect, subjects and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and much more by just sitting back and enjoying these easy-to-follow lessons. Tell your colleagues (and boss), children, teachers, and friends. Click here to watch. |
