Plural or Singular?

First the puzzle: Is the spider’s sentence correct?

Okay, “all” here means he dreams about only one thing. That’s singular, right? So the verb should be “is,” right?

Then why does “is” sound wrong, and “are” sound right? Think about it before you read the next paragraph.

The reason is called attraction. It’s a legitimate rule in Latin, but not in English, though sometimes it happens. Attraction is when you base the form of a word to agree with the closest candidate (even if it’s incorrect). And “flies” is closer to the verb than the subject is.

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“All” is one of those words that can go either way. So look at the context!

Here’s an example of getting it wrong:

A handful of buildings and mining relics are all that remains today of the once-thriving mining town of Russell Gulch, Colorado.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ghost-town-disc-golf

The writer got the sentence partly right. The sentence has a compound subject (“handful” and “relics”) and he used a plural main verb (“are” instead of “is”), but he used a singular verb in the noun clause (“all that remains”). Since “all” refers to more than one thing, it’s a plural, so the correct noun clause is “all that remain.”

Things like mass nouns (i.e. uncountable) are singular. You might say “all of the wheat is ground up,” for example.

So be careful with all that you write.

By the way, here’s a picture of some of the town, but not all of it.

That title sounds like a practice I would disagree with, but a compound subject with a singular verb can be correct! Here’s the rule:

• A compound subject with “and” gets a plural verb.

Here’s an example of getting this wrong. “zone and others” is plural, so the verb should be plural:

Our results provide new insights into how this subduction zone, and possibly others, behaves over geologic timeframes of millions of years.

https://earthsky.org/earth/cascadia-megathrust-fault-earthquake-probability

Here’s the other rule: A compound subject with “or” takes the number of the last item in the subject. If the last item is plural, use a plural verb, if the last item is singular, then use a singular verb.

A correct example:

Anomalous propagation, or AP, is the name given to radar echoes that are not related to precipitation.

https://www.wunderground.com/news/news/news/2019-07-24-traffic-highway-101-california-doppler-radar

Here’s an incorrect example. “rhetoric” is singular, so the verb should be singular:

Administration officials push back on the idea that Trump or his rhetoric have any responsibility to bear, saying the only people responsible for these mass shootings are the people shooting the guns.

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/05/748190808/trump-calls-for-strong-background-checks-following-el-paso-and-dayton-shootings

This is correct; plural second subject, plural verb.

I don’t think most schools or employers are there yet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/05/new-ipads-make-strong-back-to-school-appeal-im-still-not-sold

This post first appeared on The Writing Rag.

If you have more than one, you have a plural, even if you have more than one of the same thing. Middle panel:

You can change this by changing the subject to “each.” So “…would you want to find each of them an good home?” Now “them” is the object of the the preposition and “each” is a nice singular to go with “a good home.

So be careful!

What??? You ask. Hear me out.

First, numbers in most contexts are adjectives. Adjectives don’t show number in English. We say “five apples” but not “fives apples.” But that’s not my point.

Let’s move on to arithmetic. We (correctly) say “Three and six are nine.” Plural verb, so plural numbers, right? Not quite. That sentence has a plural subject, three and six. You could as easily say “Tom and Pete are sick.” The two persons are one each, and they make a plural subject.

A number is singular when you talk about the number itself!

For example, you say, “six is half of twelve, thirteen is a prime number.” Singular verbs! You’re referring to the number itself (not themselves), not six of something, such as six people.

Finally we get to the comic. Third panel. The guy confuses referring to the number itself with the number of things. Sounds wrong, doesn’t it?

Anyway, there’s a little incongruity for you that I bet you never noticed.