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Dora204 Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

What makes me upset is her lies????

Hello! I'm a foreign student learning English, and I'd appreciate it so much if I could get some help here about a grammatical question.

Is the sentence "What makes me upset is her lies" correct?
I thought, since it's her lie"s", not her 'lie', you can't use 'is', and therefore should use are.
Also, if you put her lies in front of the subject, shouldn't it become "Her lies are what make me upset", not what 'makes' me upset??? I don't think it should be make's' either.
I learned that 'what' can be replaced with 'the thing(s) which', and in this case, shouldn't it be 'The things which make me upset are her lies', and therefore 'What make me upset are her lies'!

Thank you all for reading this question, I really appreciate it a lot Emotion: smile
  

Top answer

It is possible for a singular thing and plural things to be equivalent, using the verb "to be". g. Your meal tonight is carrots.

— Michael Chambers Teaching English

  • It is possible for a singular thing and plural things to be equivalent, using the verb "to be".
  • g.
  • Your meal tonight is carrots.
  • All these are right: a) the thing which makes me upset is her lies b) the things which make me upset are her lies c) what makes me upset is her lies d) what makes me upset are her lies e) what make me upset are her lies To me, c) sounds more natural than d) or e).
  • I can't explain the grammar of this any more - I know it doesn't seem very logical.
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5 Answers
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It is possible for a singular thing and plural things to be equivalent, using the verb "to be". The verb agrees with the preceding subject e.g. Your meal tonight is carrots.

All these are right:

a) the thing which makes me upset is her lies
b) the things which make me upset are her lies
c) what makes me upset is her lies
d) what makes me upset are her lies
e) wha
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dora204 Hello! I'm a foreign student learning English, and I'd appreciate it so much if I could get some help here about a grammatical question. Is the sentence "What makes me upset is her lies" correct?
Yes, I'd say that it is.

I think fused relative “what” is syntactically singular, so the verb it governs must also be singular:

[1] What inte
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I would say "Her lies make me upset" or "Her lies upset me." Personally, I like the second version better.
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BirdistheWord I would say "Her lies make me upset" or "Her lies upset me." Personally, I like the second version better.
Yes, okay, but sometimes there is a good reason for using a cleft construction, notably if you want to focus on a particular constituent of the more basic non-cleft equivalent by placing it in the foreground.

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