depend? depends?

Question

I was asked a question just now and got me all uncomfortable. I feel like I'm wrong for some reason but better check first.
When using depend, you add "s" when they are plural, right?

So the questions I got asked was when a sentence that has a plural action with plural noun (in this case it was water) but has a "that", then the word "depends" would be singular, so it becomes "depend".
So the sentence went like this:

"....distributions of water that depends on the degree of contamination"

(or it was something like this..)

So this person asked me wouldn't be:

"....distributions of water that depend on the degree of contamination"

I thought the previous one was correct but now that we talked about it, I'm not so sure anymore.
This person also asked me what's the difference with "although" and "however". I didn't really know how to answer that.
Could some one please help me?

Avangi · Accepted Answer

AnonymousWhen using depend, you add "s" when they are plural, right?

Wrong. It depends. They depend. "It" is singular. "They" is plural. "Depends" is singular. "Depend" is plural.

Crazy, isn't it??

Anonymous"....distributions of water that ~~depends~~ depend on the degree of contamination"

The subject of the verb "depend" is "distributions" (plural). Edit. I should say the subject of the relative clause is "that," but "that" is plural in this case because it refers to "distributions."

If you would be so kind as to give us the complete sentence, we may find that the meaning is different from the way it now appears. That is, the subject of the verb may be "water." Right now, it does not seem to be.
We don't even have a main verb for this sentence.

The relative pronoun "that" takes the number of its antecedent.
Yes, "that" is the subject of the relative clause, but it may be singular or plural according to the word it refers to from earlier in the sentence.

The horse that pulls the wagon is big.
The horses that pull the wagon are big.

"That" doesn't change, but it's singular in the first horse example and plural in the second.

Anonymouswhat's the difference with "although" and "however".

For starters, "although" is a conjunction. It can connect two independent clauses.
Her performance was quite good, although it doesn't rise to the standard we had in mind.
(It can work like "but.")

"However" is not a conjunction. It can introduce a contrasting idea, as does "although" in the above; but the sentences remain separate --- as two complete sentences.
Her performance was quite good. However, it doesn't rise to the standard we had in mind.
(A tip o' the hat to Clive on this one. He caught me last week trying to use "however" as a conjunction.)

Regards,

- A.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you for your reply.
I think I really have to review my English grammar.
As for the sentence, it was:

"The use of different size distributions of water that depends on the degree of contamination..."
I kept on asking my self by reading the sentence out loud but I just found "depends" sound correct.

Avangi · Answer

Hi Anon,

Ask yourself this:
What exactly is it that changes when the degree of contamination changes?

It seems to me that it's the SIZE of the DISTRIBUTIONS that changes, not the water.
When you add this to the fact that "water" (singular) is the closest noun to the verb "depends," it's not at all surprising that "different size distributions of water . . . . depends on etc." sounds good to you.

But how can the water itself depend on the degree of contamination?
(I'd still love to know what the main verb of the sentence is!)

What if I change "distributions" to "buckets"?
The use of different size buckets of water, that vary with conditions, blah blah blah blah (I don't know how your sentence ends.)
Would you still feel inclined to change "vary" to "varies," making it agree with '"water"? (It's the buckets that vary!)

Notice the commas in my substitute version.
I think they help. (I think the "that" clause should be viewed as an appositive.)

depend? depends?

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