Subject-verb agreement
What is the subject here in the sentence below, variety, or exercises, or ' a variety of exercises?' What form of the verb is correct?
A variety of exercises has/have been included?
Top answer
A variety of exercises has /have been included. We generally think of variety as being number transparent, meaning that the form of the verb depends not on the singular noun variety , but on the number of the noun that is complement to the preposition of . The effect of this is that if the noun following of is singular, the verb should also be singular, while if the noun is plural, the verb should be plural too.
- A variety of exercises has /have been included.
- We generally think of variety as being number transparent, meaning that the form of the verb depends not on the singular noun variety , but on the number of the noun that is complement to the preposition of .
- The effect of this is that if the noun following of is singular, the verb should also be singular, while if the noun is plural, the verb should be plural too.
- A variety of food is available A variety of meals are available .
- But note that things are different when variety is preceded by the definite article the : The variety of food available was amazing .
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A variety of exercises has/have been included.
We generally think of variety as being number transparent, meaning that the form of the verb depends not on the singular noun variety, but on the number of the noun that is complement to the preposition of. The effect of this is that if the noun following of is singular, the verb should also be
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