Timeline for inquiring about a subject of a sentence that you've just overheard
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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Jun 26, 2019 at 17:16 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | Yes, and I also said as well as other grammatical elements. If you want to know why your sentences should not use the plural form, then you should ask that as a separate question. Any explanation is beyond the ability of comments to address. | |
Jun 26, 2019 at 17:10 | comment | added | brilliant | @JasonBassford - In your sentence "who" is also placed at the very start ("Who are all of the people who go to the boneyard after they become too old?"), and yet it's perfectly grammatical and "who" there is plural. It's like in case with some nouns that just like "who" and "what" may be singular or plural depending on the context: "Deer lives in the forest", "Sheep goes out of the pen" - "deer" and "sheep" are singular; "Deer live in the forest", "Sheep go out of the pen" - "deer" and "sheep" are plural. | |
Jun 26, 2019 at 16:22 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | The construction I was taking about was putting who or what at the start of the sentences, as well as the other grammatical elements that they use. All of that combined makes the use of go simply wrong. You can't claim it's right because it was used. If that were a meaningful argument, then there would never be anything ungrammatical. | |
Jun 26, 2019 at 12:13 | comment | added | brilliant | @JasonBassford - "they all have a construction that uses a singular form" - I am afraid I would have to disagree with this assertion. Sentences 4 and 6 use "go", not "goes", in other words, they use plural form. | |
Jun 26, 2019 at 5:55 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | The plurality doesn't matter in any of the specific sentences in the question; they all have a construction that uses a singular form. However, for comparison, here is a construction where you could use a plural subject: Who are all of the people who go to the boneyard after they become too old? (And the answer would be a list of people in some form.) But also note that in that question it's known that the subject is people. | |
Jun 26, 2019 at 5:30 | review | Close votes | |||
Jul 11, 2019 at 3:05 | |||||
Jun 26, 2019 at 5:28 | comment | added | brilliant | @JasonBassford - "who and what both take a singular verb if the subject is unknown" - What if the subject is unknown, but it's know that it is plural (like in my question)? | |
Jun 26, 2019 at 5:11 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | First of all, unless there is some place with the name of Boneyard, you really need to use an article. It should be a boneyard or the boneyard. And it's also goes, not go; who and what both take a singular verb if the subject is unknown. | |
Jun 26, 2019 at 4:48 | vote | accept | brilliant | ||
Jun 26, 2019 at 0:32 | answer | added | David Siegel | timeline score: 1 | |
Jun 26, 2019 at 0:20 | history | asked | brilliant | CC BY-SA 4.0 |