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Kook j Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

what is/are

Hi.
I found a sentence below:

Some people think the physical things define what is within. 



Questions:
1:Is singular verb is used because the speaker considers the physical things as one unit?

2:Is it OK to use plural are if I consider the things individually?

Some people think the physical things define what are within.

Thank you very much in advance.
  

Top answer

1. No. "what" is a relative pronoun in your sentence so it doesn't refer back to "the physical things".

— Ivanhr

  • 1.
  • No.
  • "what" is a relative pronoun in your sentence so it doesn't refer back to "the physical things".
  • As a result, it doesn't have to use "are".
  • 2.
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3 Answers
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1. No. "what" is a relative pronoun in your sentence so it doesn't refer back to "the physical things". As a result, it doesn't have to use "are".

2. No, unless "what are" is followed by a plural noun phrase. (and this is not the case here)
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Thank you very much Ivanhr but it's still not clear for me. Could you give me further help please?

Shouldn't something within the physical things be plural, too?

Thank you very much in advance.
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kook jThank you very much Ivanhr but it's still not clear for me. Could you give me further help please?Shouldn't something within the physical things be plural, too?Thank you very much in advance.
Not necessarily. Consider this example

Some people think that physical things define what is known as the material world. ("what" refers to the mat
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