concord

Question

Hello! In the cleft sentence It's suspense films that scares me.Is it correct to use a singular verb?I compared it with  What scares me is suspense films. Am I right?Thanks

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

4444mvIn the cleft sentence It's suspense films that scares me.Is it correct to use a singular verb?

It sounds wrong to me. Proximal concord is too strong, even if the relative pronoun does not refer to 'films'—which I think it does.

Anonymous · Answer

The sentence, "It's suspense films that scares me.", is not right. It should be: "It's suspense films that scare me."

The explanation for this is that in the first part of the sentence you're essentially saying: The type of film being highlighted is suspense films. ("Is" matches with "type.") And in the second part of the sentence you're now saying: These films scare me. ("These films" is represented by "that," and "scare" matches with "films.")

The sentence, "What scares me is suspense films.", is correct, but the pattern here is different from the above. In the clause "What scares me," "What" matches with "scares." The clause, "What scares me," then takes the function of a (singular) noun, and matches with "is."

4444mv · Answer

I mean that the subject of the cleft sentence is 'It 'and that's why I think that a singular verb might be used, to respect subject-verb agreement, in the example It's suspense films that scares me. Is this correct?

Now I understand that the relative pronoun in my second example refers to films, so, should I say: What scare me are suspense films?(using a plural verb?)

In that pseudo-cleft sentence, can't what scares me be replaced by 'the thing that sacres me' ? In this case, the verb I would use is singular.
As you can see I'm very confused.
Thanks in advanced for your help.

Kind regards, Mister Micawber

Mister Micawber · Answer

4444mvhould I say: What scare me are suspense films?(using a plural verb?)

Yes.

4444mv'the thing that sacres me' ? In this case, the verb I would use is singular.

Right.

4444mv · Answer

Thank you very much!

4444mv · Answer

But in the cleft sentence, the subject is the anticipatory 'it' an to respect subject-verb agreement, the verb should be singular. Of course you can express the meaning of the sentence in different ways but I'm just talking about this particular structure of cleft sentences.
Thank you.
Regards

Anonymous · Answer

"It's suspense films that scares me." is incorrect. "It" in the first part of the sentence refers to the subject at hand, the genre (a singular noun) of"suspense films." "That" in the second part of the sentence refers to the plural noun, "suspense films." So the correct form is: "It's suspense films that scare me." (I can see why this is confusing for an adult learner: you have a sudden switch in number between the first and second parts of the sentence. I, as a native speaker, am going mainly by how it sounds. I know what the correct-sounding sentence is by experience with the language.)

If you want to turn the cleft sentence into a simple sentence of one part you'd say: "Suspense films scare me." or "What scares me is (the genre of) suspense films." (Again, this is confusing, because you end up with either a singular or plural noun, depending on what you want to emphasize, the films themselves or the genre to which they belong.)

The sentence, "The thing that scares me is (the genre of) suspense films.", is the same as "What scares me is (the genre of) suspense films.", with "The thing" replacing "what."

You've brought up a very complex issue in English grammar, so it's not surprising that you're confused.

4444mv · Answer

4444mvBut in the cleft sentence, the subject is the anticipatory 'it' an to respect subject-verb agreement, the verb should be singular. Of course you can express the meaning of the sentence in different ways but I'm just talking about this particular structure of cleft sentences. Thank you.Regards

This post was sent to an anonymous member.

4444mv · Answer

Yes, I've brought up a very complex issue, but it is clear now!
Thank you very much!

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