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Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

What he needs is / are?

0Could anyone enlighten me on this:02br
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00"What he needs 01font01i00is 02i00/ 02font01i01font00are02font00 02i00two roses - one for Diane, and another for Cindy."02br
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00Should the singular be used here (where "two roses" is seen as an entity of its own), and in all other cases, or should the plural be used here since it later elaborates whom the roses are for?0-
  

Top answer

0 With the "two" (obviously plural) immediately after the verb, to my ears, only the plural verb sounds right. 0-

— BarbaraPA

  • 0 With the "two" (obviously plural) immediately after the verb, to my ears, only the plural verb sounds right.
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15 Answers
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0 With the "two" (obviously plural) immediately after the verb, to my ears, only the plural verb sounds right. 0-
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01cite10Anonymous12cite10Could anyone enlighten me on this:12br
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10"What he needs 11font11i10is 12i10/ 12font11i11font10are12font10 12i10two roses - one for Diane, and another for Cindy."12
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0 To me the subject is 01i00what he needs02i00. I sense singularity in all such noun phrases headed by 01i00what02i00. It follows that I interpret the plural on the other side of the equative structure as a unit.02br
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01i00What he needs is two roses. (A grouping of) Two roses is what he needs. (A pair of roses is ..
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0 I can't (and wouldn't!) argue with the logic of "What he needs" as the subject, but I was going by ear - what you are likely 01i00to hear02i00. And yet, the song "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" tells me that my ear as well as my logic is flawed. Sorry 050010id6
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0 It's quite possible that the structure is handled differently in different geographical regions.02br
00 My way of doing it is the way I'm used to hearing it. It doesn't mean yours is wrong.02br
00 Maybe we need to take a poll?02br
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00 CJ0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Grammar Geek12cite10I can't (and wouldn't!) argue with the logic of "What he needs" as the subject, but I was going by ear - what you are likely 11i10to hear12i10. And yet, the song "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" tells me that my ear as well as my logic is flawed. Sorry 15012blockquo
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0Hi, I already asked a similar question, and I was told that a plural verb sounds good (as GG said), anyway a singular verb is acceptable too (Jim's first choice). I like a plural verb more though, like GG (sorry Jim! 05100)02br
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00So you can say both "What I need is two roses" and "What I need are two roses". Here's something I found on the net when I was stru
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0Good link, Kooyeen, thanks.02br
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00I love this line: "the notional attraction from the plural predicate nominatives will tend to make the plural 01i00are02i00 the choice" - uh, yeah. While I actually do understand that, can people who don't work with this stuff every day make sense of things like that? I guess "notional attraction" is what leads to
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0Thanks for the URL from Bartleby. I asked that question because if you notice, the following constructions will then hold (or do they):02br
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00"Why he hates her 01b01u01i00are02i02u02b00 that she's condescending AND she caused him to lose his job" - since 2 reasons are given.02br
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00"When the b
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0These are all HIGHLY unnatural. It's difficult to imagine a native speaker using any of them.01blockquote
01cite10Anonymous12cite10"Why he hates her 11b11u11i10are12i12u12b10 that she's condescending AND she caused him to lose his job" - since 2 reasons are given.12br
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11font
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