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HSS Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Is or Are?

I feel a little uncomfortable with 'is' in the last sentence. Shouldn't it be 'are' as it, I think, should correspond with 'the things,' not the clause 'His mother sets aside the things he doesn't like'?

Gogol receives several dictionaries, several calculators, several Cross pen-and-pencil sets, several ugly sweaters. His parents give him an Instamatic camera, a new sketchbook, colored pencils and the mechanical pen he asked for, and twenty dollars to spend as he wishes. Sonia has made him a card with Magic Markers, on paper she's ripped out of one of his own sketchbooks, which says "Happy Birthday Goggles," the name she insists on calling him instead of Dada. His mother sets aside the things he doesn't like, which is most everything, to give to his cousins the next time they go to India. ('The Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri)
  

Top answer

HSS Shouldn't it be 'are' No; it's OK as is. His mother sets aside the things he doesn't like, which is most (=almost) everything, to give ... = His mother sets aside the things he doesn't like, that/which is to say, these things amount to most (=almost) everything, to give ...

— CalifJim

  • HSS Shouldn't it be 'are' No; it's OK as is.
  • His mother sets aside the things he doesn't like, which is most (=almost) everything, to give ...
  • = His mother sets aside the things he doesn't like, that/which is to say, these things amount to most (=almost) everything, to give ...
  • CJ
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9 Answers
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HSSShouldn't it be 'are'
No; it's OK as is.

His mother sets aside the things he doesn't like, which is most (=almost) everything, to give ...
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His mother sets aside the things he doesn't like, that/which is to say, these things amount to most (=almost) everything, to give ...

CJ
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Does the rule of number-concord not apply here? If not, then, does this exception only transpire with the (, which is ... every/all,) insert, or may it be found elsewhere too?
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HSSDoes the rule of number-concord not apply here?
Right. The rule does not apply.
HSSdoes this exception only transpire with the (, which is ... every/all,) insert, or may it be found elsewhere too?
Your question is excellent, and it's one that I have as well. I will have to think about it a little and get back to you. I
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The forum currently seems to be acting up; you keep receiving an 'error' message from the operator, uploading replies, when in fact you sometimes have been successful in posting them. I've just deleted the same reply that I put up earlier. Sorry for the confusion it might have caused.

Hiro
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After you make your post and receive the error page, use your browser to go back two pages. Then hit your browser's "Refresh" button. You should see your post.

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You can't use are in this case, because the verb doesn't refer to the part of the sentece before the comma followed by the sentence in question. The use of is depends entirely on the words which and everything and this last word is the key word. You always use everything in singular just like everybody or everyone!
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Dear, this one is very simple: an English grammar rule tells you that you use everybody, everyone, everything always in singular. The verb is in this sentence refers to everything and to the noun in the previous (subordinate) sentence!
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Thanks, Jim.

I intentionally used 'who' in the following example. Does this sound odd to your ear? With all the accessories added before and after, 'who' also sounds okay to my non-native speaker's ear. However, repeating it a half dozen times, 'which' sounds better, on second thought.

I shook the hands of more than one hundred people invited to the party who, I thought, emco
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If the last part of the sentence refers to the fact of shaking hands you need to use which, but if it refers to the noun people then using who is obligatory since you can't use which/that for people!
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