Is "one thing" really plural ?

[nq:1]I just read this in a novel : "One thing she'd grown to love about London were the parks." 'One thing ... were' sounds completely wrong to me, but 'was' doesn't sound quite right either.[/nq]
Attraction of the verb to the number of the predicate is extremely common in these degenerate times. It was deprecated in the standard English of my youth, and it still sounds wrong to me. I would e

[nq:1]I just read this in a novel : "One thing she'd grown to love about London were the parks." 'One thing ... were' sounds completely wrong to me, but 'was' doesn't sound quite right either.[/nq]
Isn't the basic problem with that sentence not that "one thing" is being treated as plural, but that "the parks" is being treated as a singular?
Idiomatically, "the parks" will inevitably attrac

[nq:1]Bob Martin wrote[/nq]
[nq:2]I just read this in a novel : "One thing ... wrong to me, but 'was' doesn't sound quite right either.[/nq]
[nq:1]Isn't the basic problem with that sentence not that "one thing" is being treated as plural, but that "the parks" ... attract a plural rather than singular verb and describing "the parks" as "one thing" is where the problem lies.[/nq]
Yup, th

[nq:1]I just read this in a novel : "One thing she'd grown to love about London were the parks." 'One thing ... were' sounds completely wrong to me, but 'was' doesn't sound quite right either.[/nq]
Ah, the old linking-singular-to-plural problem. I had a feeling I could turn up quite a few of these on the Web, and I did:

One problem is the types of people you are meeting, One problem i

[nq:1]I just read this in a novel : "One thing she'd grown to love about London were the parks." 'One thing ... were' sounds completely wrong to me, but 'was' doesn't sound quite right either.[/nq]
I know what you mean there are several vqariations on this that always sound wrong to me until I turn them around:

The parks were the one thing she'd grown to love...

[nq:2]I just read this in a novel : "One thing ... wrong to me, but 'was' doesn't sound quite right either.[/nq]
[nq:1]I know what you mean there are several vqariations on this that always sound wrong to me until I turn them around: The parks were the one thing she'd grown to love...[/nq]
OK, but now let's reflect on your dashes above. Dashing as you may want to be and I'm one who always

[nq:2]I know what you mean there are several vqariations ... The parks were the one thing she'd grown to love...[/nq]
[nq:1]OK, but now let's reflect on your dashes above. Dashing as you may want to be and I'm one ... that does not sit well. Anyway, those are my thoughts take them for what they are worth (no charge).[/nq]
Oh, I admit I am dash-happy (slapdash?). I rarely use semicolons, op

[nq:2]OK, but now let's reflect on your dashes above. Dashing ... take them for what they are worth (no charge).[/nq]
[nq:1]Oh, I admit I am dash-happy (slapdash?). I rarely use semicolons, opting for em-dashes and splash them around liberally and when I dash off posts to news groups I'm even more dashed careless![/nq]
Fair enough. I see nothing wrong with the dashes in your last sentence,

[nq:2]Oh, I admit I am dash-happy (slapdash?). I rarely use ... off posts to news groups I'm even more dashed careless![/nq]
[nq:1]Fair enough. I see nothing wrong with the dashes in your last sentence, BTW. Dash on![/nq]
"On Dasher, on Blitzen!" surely?

Joe Fineman filted:
[nq:1]It seems to me that these days anything can be plural.[/nq]
Yes, anything can, and often are..r