Subject Verb Agreement

Subject Verb Agreement sometimes causes me headache.
I would like to have your comment on the following sentence. Please !

The fisherman and the father of three sons, Mr James, (has/have) received the award.

In this case, would you please possibly decide which verb should be used in such sentence?

Of course, there is nothing to talk about if we write it in this way:
Mr James, the fisherman and the father of three sons, has receved the award.

Thanks in advance for your comment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nagara

Subject Verb Agreement sometimes causes me headache.
I would like to have your comment on the following sentence. Please !

The fisherman and the father of three sons, Mr James, (has/have) received the award.

In this case, would you please possibly decide which verb should be used in such sentence?

Of course, there is nothing to talk about if we write it in this way:
Mr James, the fisherman and the father of three sons, has receved the award.

Thanks in advance for your comment.

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The right verb to use depends on the subject. If Mr James is both the fisherman and the father, then it's singular.
Sometimes if the subject is not written grammatically or is ambiguous, you can't tell if it's singular or plural, and so there's no correct verb.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nagara

Subject Verb Agreement sometimes causes me headache.
I would like to have your comment on the following sentence. Please !

The fisherman and the father of three sons, Mr James, (has/have) received the award.

In this case, would you please possibly decide which verb should be used in such sentence?

Of course, there is nothing to talk about if we write it in this way:
Mr James, the fisherman and the father of three sons, has receved the award.

Thanks in advance for your comment.

---

In both of your sentences, you are talking about Mr. James only.The comma once used before "Mr. James" and once after it indicates that there is an explanation of the noun "Mr. James" on the other side of the comma.So "has" should be used in these two sentences.

I agree with Raymond (and Glenn).

To get shoaib's meaning, I would add a comma:

The fisherman, and the father of three sons, Mr James, has received the award.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nagara

Subject Verb Agreement sometimes causes me headache.
I would like to have your comment on the following sentence. Please !

The fisherman and the father of three sons, Mr James, (has/have) received the award.

In this case, would you please possibly decide which verb should be used in such sentence?

Of course, there is nothing to talk about if we write it in this way:
Mr James, the fisherman and the father of three sons, has receved the award.

Thanks in advance for your comment.

---

You've answered your own question. You can use this method with other problem sentences: rewrite it so that the subject/verb agreement is clear, and use that verb.

(In speech and rapidly produced text (like journalism) people frequently make the mistake of assuming that the verb should agree with the nearest grammatically-suitable noun.)

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