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I have a grammar question that I'd like to know the answer to that came up in a discussion. Which of the following two versions of a sentence is correct?

a) The biggest loser among free-time activities is personal meetings.

or

b) The biggest loser under free-time activities are personal meetings.

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    The subject of the sentence is the biggest loser, which is singular, so...
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 17:48
  • Yes, singular "is" is correct, though it does mean that predicative and predicand differ in grammatical number. The OP needs deserves an explanation for this mismatch.
    – BillJ
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 12:59
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    The problem is not grammar; it's calling personal meetings a free time activity.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 21 at 19:27

1 Answer 1

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"Is" (to agree with the singular subject "loser") but avoid such sentences if possible. Such sentences can usually be rephrased to avoid the grammar problem.

In this case your sentences are meaningless. What does it mean for "personal meetings" to be "big losers". It's very unclear. It is easy to rephrase

Personal meetings are the biggest losers...

But harder to know what you really mean and so hard to know how you should actually express the idea.

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