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Snappy Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
A wide range of materials is/are
Which one is gramatically correct?
A wide range of materials is/are used for the manufacture of our pipeline products.
If I consider that "a wide range" is the gramatical subject of the sentence, it should be followed by "is" but if I consider that "materials" is the gramatical subject, "are" should be used.
In such cases, can I rewirte to avoid confusion as follows?:
Materials in a wide range are used for the manufacture of our pipeline products. (Is this gramatically okay and natural?)
A wide range of materials is/are used for the manufacture of our pipeline products.
If I consider that "a wide range" is the gramatical subject of the sentence, it should be followed by "is" but if I consider that "materials" is the gramatical subject, "are" should be used.
In such cases, can I rewirte to avoid confusion as follows?:
Materials in a wide range are used for the manufacture of our pipeline products. (Is this gramatically okay and natural?)
Top answer
Unfortunately, your revision is not so natural or smooth as the original; however, you can use either is or are and no one will notice, because the choice can be based on grammatical, notional, or proximal concord.
- Unfortunately, your revision is not so natural or smooth as the original; however, you can use either is or are and no one will notice, because the choice can be based on grammatical, notional, or proximal concord.
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2 Answers
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Unfortunately, your revision is not so natural or smooth as the original; however, you can use either is or are and no one will notice, because the choice can be based on grammatical, notional, or proximal concord.
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SnappyA wide range of materials is used for the manufacture of our pipeline products.The grammatical subject is "range." "Materials" is the object of a preposition, and cannot also be a subject.
You can say with some specifics:
Many materials, ranging from plastics to metals are used ...
or your other re-write is OK, too.
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