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Questions tagged [proximity-agreement]

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306 views

A letter or letters, which is right?

I helped students to write a letter I helped students to write letters I met people who had a dream. I met people who had dreams. Which is correct? When the agent is plural, the corresponding ...
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2answers
53 views

“this unusual instrument” with plural antecedents

The singular noun phrase "this unusual instrument" in the following refers to plural antecedents "them" and "glass harps." Is this practice acceptable in a school essay? Glass harps haven’t ...
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3answers
53 views

An AI omitting a simple grammar rule?

In the game "The Turing Test", at one point an incredibly intelligent AI utters a sentence that baffles me because of its sudden disregard for the "s" form. It says: The distance between Jupiter ...
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2answers
720 views

Question tag: Either you or he is mistaken, ____?

What is the appropriate tag to add to the end of the following statement? Either you or he is mistaken, ______ ? As is evident from the is, there are grounds for saying that the so-called proximity ...
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2answers
2k views

“My wife and I am”: Singular / Plural and the rule of proximity issue

"My wife and I am" = one family, a singular number. Therefore satisfies the use of "am" for both number and proximity issues.
3
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1answer
92 views

Placement of relative clauses

I know anaphora, antecedents or relative pronouns; what bothers me most is the placement of relative clauses in a sentence. The structure of the complex sentence or compound sentence is such that I ...
3
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2answers
942 views

“Most of their conversation was complaints about the company.”

I am a native English speaker and have gone through 8 years of grammar school (and 20-some years of speaking...). Nevertheless, sentences such as the one in the title have always sounded odd to me and ...
2
votes
1answer
98 views

have or has in this sentence?

This is one of the hesitating conditions in which I cannot tell for sure. Should I change "have been" to "has been"? It has long been established that adverse drivers’ behavior, including behavior ...
4
votes
2answers
289 views

Revolutions can, and often have, begun with reading - why “begun”, why not “begin”?

Revolutions can, and often have, begun with reading. I am curious to know about the use of the verb "begun" here. Though I am not saying it's wrong, but it can also be "begin". I see it this way. ...