It Could be Wrong or It Could be Right
Here’s the sentence. Think about the highlighted verbs before you read what’s below.
The blizzard of reports, studies, and press releases that always accompanies a COP means that important developments can get buried.
https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/the-never-ending-cop
Okay, “accompanies” and “means” are singular verbs. What might be their subject or subjects?
“Accompanies” is close to “reports, studies, and press releases,” but that’s a plural! So “blizzard,” a singular, has to be the subject. The blizzard accompanies a COP.
What about “means”? Looks like “blizzard has to be its subject, too. So the blizzard accompanies and means something. Awkward, but technically it could be grammatical.
But what about that nice list? You could say that they accompany a COP, especially since they’re objects of a preposition with a relative clause right after it.
I think if the list did the accompanying and the blizzard should mean something gets buried; after all, it’s a blizzard!
What’s your opinion?
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