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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Passive

I's like to know do we say
1000km of the coastline were affected
or
1000km of the coastline was affected.
thanks in advance.
  

Top answer

Hi This is all about subject/verb 'agreement', or concord (notional concord to be precise). Notional concord occurs when the verb agrees with the singular or plural meaning of the subject, regardless of any grammatical marker. For example, in two miles is a long way, the verb is singular because 'two miles' is viewed as a single entity.

— BillJ

  • Hi This is all about subject/verb 'agreement', or concord (notional concord to be precise).
  • Notional concord occurs when the verb agrees with the singular or plural meaning of the subject, regardless of any grammatical marker.
  • For example, in two miles is a long way, the verb is singular because 'two miles' is viewed as a single entity.
  • So, the answer to your question is: do we consider the phrase '1000km of the coastline' to be a single entity, or more than one entity?
  • If it was recast as '1000 kms of the coastline was/were a long way to walk', I would go for 'was', because to me it seems a single entity.
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2 Answers
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Hi

This is all about subject/verb 'agreement', or concord (notional concord to be precise). Notional concord occurs when the verb agrees with the singular or plural meaning of the subject, regardless of any grammatical marker. For example, in two miles is a long way, the verb is singular because 'two miles' is viewed as a single entity.

So, the answer to y
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BillJ
So, the answer to your question is: do we consider the phrase '1000km of the coastline' to be a single entity, or more than one entity?


That's how I would approach this kind of context. Two hours is too long for anyone to be sitting around doing nothing but waiting.
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