Grammatical Agreement
It means that the verb-predicate agrees with the subject in number and person. Our only guide was the stars. The stars were our only guide. The verb-predicate is used in the singular if the subject is expressed by: 1. An infinitive or infinitives: To labour in peace was all he sought. To love and to be loved was his dream. 2. A clause: How you persuaded them is beyond my understanding. Where you found them does not concern us. Note: If by two clauses, the plural predicate is used. What I say and what I do are my own affair. 3. A numerical expression of arithmetic calculation (addition, subtraction, division): Two and five is seven. Ten minus two is eight. Twenty divided by five equals four. Note: Multiplication presents an exception as the verb may be in the singular or in the plural. Twice ten is/are twenty. 4. The word-group “many a + noun”: Many a lie has been told. 5.With here - there constructions followed by subjects of different number, the verb-predicate agrees with the first subject: Here is Tom and James. There was a young woman and two children in the yard. There were two children and a young woman in the yard. 6. Plural words and phrases count as singular if they are used as names, titles, quotations, etc.: “Fathers and Sons” is the most popular of Turgenev’s novels. “Senior Citizens” means people over sixty. Note: The titles of some works which are collections of stories, etc., however, can be singular or plural: The Canterbury Tales exist/exists in many manuscripts.
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