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Adnan1947 Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Subject verb agreement
"Ten million gallons of oil ___ a lot of oil. (is/are)
"Ten million gallons of oil ___ spilled. (was/were)
Kindly tell what would be the answers for each of the above and please explain why "ten million gallons is being considered plural in one case and siingular in another case"
The rule that I learnt so far "said that after the part of the sentence which comes after "of" should be ignore unless we are using certain indefinite pronouns suchs as some any none most and all...
regards,
adnan
"Ten million gallons of oil ___ spilled. (was/were)
Kindly tell what would be the answers for each of the above and please explain why "ten million gallons is being considered plural in one case and siingular in another case"
The rule that I learnt so far "said that after the part of the sentence which comes after "of" should be ignore unless we are using certain indefinite pronouns suchs as some any none most and all...
regards,
adnan
Top answer
It is a matter of how the writer conceives the oil-- as a single large volume or as a large number of gallons. Either verb is possible in both sentences, but for the first sentence, 'a lot of oil' (uncountable) leads us to prefer ' is ', while in the second sentence the thought of a progress of spilling oil (gallon by gallon) leads us to prefer ' were '.
- It is a matter of how the writer conceives the oil-- as a single large volume or as a large number of gallons.
- Either verb is possible in both sentences, but for the first sentence, 'a lot of oil' (uncountable) leads us to prefer ' is ', while in the second sentence the thought of a progress of spilling oil (gallon by gallon) leads us to prefer ' were '.
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3 Answers
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It is a matter of how the writer conceives the oil-- as a single large volume or as a large number of gallons. Either verb is possible in both sentences, but for the first sentence, 'a lot of oil' (uncountable) leads us to prefer 'is', while in the second sentence the thought of a progress of spilling oil (gallon by gallon) leads us to prefer 'were'.
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First, oil is uncountable; if the "ten million of oil" is focused on the volume or amount, the answer will be IS or WAS; however, if the focus is on the GALLONS, then the answer will be ARE or WERE.
Thanks
Jake
Thanks
Jake
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