verb-tense problems

Question

Hi,I have serious verb-tense problems even though I've read through Diana Hacker's writing reference book on it.Can you tell me if this sentence is correct?People who opposes the pronoun ‘they’, can argue that ‘they’ has a root word ‘he’, thus it is biased in that way.Also, can you explain to me why -ed is needed at the end of bias?Thanks.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Welcome to English Forums!

"people" is plural, so you need "oppose", not "opposes".
No comma between a subject and predicate.
"biased" is a past participle acting as an adjective. Verb tenses don't enter into it.

People who oppose the pronoun 'they' can argue that 'they' has a root word 'he'; thus it is biased in that way.

Out of context, the sentence doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's grammatical.
I assume the "it" which is biased is referred to in some preceding sentence, because there is nothing in this sentence that "it" can refer back to.

CJ

Adrift · Answer

Thanks! That was very quick and helpful. But I'm not done yet though

.

What's the difference between "..." and '...? Is it because when you used "..." you're quoting my words vs. when you use '...' it is your own?

Wow, I never knew how bad I was with English until I went to college. Thanks again!

CalifJim · Answer

I'm afraid I'm better at grammar than punctuation. I used single quotes in the example sentence because you did. Normally, I use double quotes. In all probability the single-quoted items in your sentence would be shown in italics in a printed context, but you may want to start another thread regarding the proper punctuation of that sentence, just to be sure. Someone else on the forum is bound to have the answer.

CJ

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