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Fire1 Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

Do "subject complement" have to be plural if the subject is plural?

  1. Chimpanzees are an intelligent animal like dolphins
  2. Chimpanzees are intelligent animals like dolphins.
I wonder which one is grammatically correct.The subject complements are "an intelligent animal" and "intelligent animals".The subject is "Chimpanzees".
  

Top answer

(1) is pretty horrible. (2) is fine as far as the agreement is concerned. To be fussy, it has a slight imperfection in that it can be read as meaning that chimpanzees are generally like dolphins, not just in terms of their intelligence.

— GPY

  • (1) is pretty horrible.
  • (2) is fine as far as the agreement is concerned.
  • To be fussy, it has a slight imperfection in that it can be read as meaning that chimpanzees are generally like dolphins, not just in terms of their intelligence.
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2 Answers
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(1) is pretty horrible. (2) is fine as far as the agreement is concerned. To be fussy, it has a slight imperfection in that it can be read as meaning that chimpanzees are generally like dolphins, not just in terms of their intelligence.

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fire1Chimpanzees are intelligent animals like dolphins.

I'd write it like this:

Chimpanzees and dolphins are intelligent animals.

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