Singular or Plural?
rogersgeorge on October 2nd, 2021
Here’s a headline from the local paper:
Pocatello police: All but one body recovered from Downard Funeral Home have been identified
https://www.idahostatejournal.com/townnews/anatomy/pocatello-police-all-but-one-body-recovered-from-downard-funeral-home-have-been-identified/article_b5f85d9b-01b2-53d3-96ee-4a322ac66fd5.html
Shouldn’t that be “has been identified”?
No! The subject of the sentence is “all,” which is a plural when you’re counting something. (It can be singular when you’re measuring. “All of my pudding is gone.”)
Well, “one body recovered from Downard Funeral Home” is rather long, giving you time to forget the actual subject, and to want to make the verb agree with “body.” (This is called attraction, by the way.)
So be alert!
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