Other Writing Mishaps



Being falsely attracted to the wrong noun in a sentence is not the only source where subject-verb disagreements can hamper the writer. Indeed, there are several other ways, in which an otherwise excellent essay can be riddled with grammatical problems in this sense. This section presents some of the most common problem areas for your consideration.

Academic Subjects. The names of academic subjects that end in "s" are almost universally considered singular. Typical examples would include "physics," "statistics," "biometrics," "civics," "mathematics," and so on. "Physics is my best subject." is correct. In the case of "statistics," if it is being used as an academic subject, it is singular. If it is being used as a word on its own, it is plural.
Example. "Statistics class was fun today!" contrasted with, "The university's statistics are gathered from a variety of on-campus sources."

Amounts and Distances. When plural nouns are used as a unit of measure or refer to a distance, they are treated as singular and should receive a singular verb.
Example. "Sixteen dollars is pretty high for a movie ticket!" or "The thirty-two miles to the old country store was getting longer every day."

Collective Nouns. Collective nouns are words that refer to more than one item or person. Nevertheless, they are considered singular and should receive a singular verb.
Example. "The entire hockey team rode the bus." Other collective nouns include "Congress," "group," "family," "class," and so forth.

Greeks and Romans. English is a gloriously unique language in that it borrows liberally from other languages. This is especially true for words based in Greek and Latin, which had radically different conventions for indicating singular and plural nouns. Words such as "data," "radii," and "strata" are all plural; although it is easy for today's modern English writer to assume that they are not. The singular versions of these words are "datum," "radius," and "stratum," respectively. One should be wary of such Greek and Latin words and strive to avoid the all-too-easy subject-verb errors

This and That. Sooner or later, the essay writer will create a sentence that has a compound subject. Simply put, a compound subject is where two or more words within the sentence function as the subject, connected by the word "and." Sometimes a list of several subject words, delimited by commas, can be used, as well. In these cases, the verb is usually plural.
Examples. "John, Karen, and Dave are headed to the beach." and "Patience and dedication to your work are needed to complete this task."