Sometimes prepositional phrases can come between the
subject and the verb. If the object of the preposition is singular and the
subject is plural, or if the object of the preposition is plural and the
subject is singular, there can be confusion in making the subject and verb
agree.
The key (to the doors)
are * in the drawer.
The keys (to the door)
is * in the drawer.
(Remember, in this website an asterisk (*) shows an
incorrect word.)
In the first example, you might think that doors is the subject because it comes
directly in front of the verb are.
However, doors is not the subject,
because it is the object of preposition to.
The subject of the sentence is key,
so the verb should be is.
In the second example,
you might think that door is the
subject because it comes directly in front of the verb is. You should recognize in this example that door is not the subject, because it is the object of the
preposition to. Because the subject
of the sentence is keys, the verb
should be are.
A particular agreement
problem occurs when the subject of a sentence is a word like all, most, some,
or part) can be singular or plural, depending on what follows the preposition
of.
All (of the book) was
interesting.
All (of the books) were
interesting.
In the first example
the subject all is singular because
it is all of one thing (book). The correct verb is therefore the singular was. In the second example, the subject all is plural because it is all of several
things (books). The correct verb is therefore the plural were.
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