May i know which sentence below is the correct one:
- My heart (and belly) is full.
or
- My heart (and belly) are full.
TIA!!
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2 Answers
If you use parenthetical information, the sentence is only grammatical if it would be grammatical should that information be removed. In other words, the parenthetical information has no bearing on the grammar of the surrounding sentence:
So:
✔ My heart
(and belly)is full.
✔ My heart(Hark, what light through yonder window breaks!)is full.✘ My heart
(and belly)are full.
When composing a sentence, compose it so that it's grammatical in the absence of any parenthetical information—and then add that information in after the fact.
If the grammar of your sentence depends on the existence of parenthetical information, then it is essential information and not parenthetical at all—and it should not be presented as such.
In short:
✔ My heart (and belly) is full.
✔ My heart and belly are full.
If you want to keep the parenthetical information but use it in such a way that it doesn't appear to be incorrect, then rephrase the sentence:
✔ My heart is full (as is my belly).
answered Jul 15, 2019 at 13:39
When the sentence includes parentheses it can be difficult to know whether to make the verb agree with or without the parenthetic portion.
In your example, because you can't really read the sentence without the "and belly" portion, agreement is plural: My heart (and belly) are full.
If your sentence encourages the reader to skip the parenthetic portion, agreement would be singular: My heart (and all of its tiny tissues and subcomponents, all four chambers, and each of the valves and their parts, and the simoatrial and atrioventricular nodes) is full.
