subject verb agreement

Status
Not open for further replies.

arzgol

Member
Joined
May 28, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Persian
Home Country
Iran
Current Location
Canada
I'm little confused. According to the rule when you use and in a sentence , a verb should plural. But sometimes you use a singular verb.

Living and studying in my country was difficult. or

She thinks that the increasing computer lab hours and hiring new staff is a good idea.
Could you please explain it to me.
Thanks in advance
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
I'm little confused. According to the rule when you use "and" in a sentence, a verb should plural. But sometimes you use a singular verb.

Living and studying in my country was difficult. or

She thinks that the increasing computer lab hours and hiring new staff is a good idea.
Could you please explain it to me.
Thanks in advance
The rule you've learnt is wrong or at least only partial. Living and studying is counted as the one activity when it is the combination of the two that made it difficult. Living there might have been easy. Studying there might have been easy. But living and studying there might have been difficult. (That's a bad example because studying in a country implies living there - or maybe that's what makes it one activity)
A more illustrative sentence might be, "Learning French and German together is difficult." It's more apparent here that 'are' is wrong.

In the second example, there is only one good idea - increasing lab hours and hiring new staff. Again, either factor by itself might not be a good idea. The good idea is doing both.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top