关于what主语从句谓语该用单数还是复数的问题

kluivert

Lostria 发表于 2018-9-9 18:52
看句子的主语核心词是什么，第一句是the reason, 第二句是risks

犯了和我一样的错误  

Btw , 是the reason ..., the use ,,,.and the ...平行结构

Ron 确认正确的句子

What his father gave him is three books .




RonPurewal
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Re: painted caves at Lascaux and Altamira

Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:22 am

cnhelen wrote:1) But don't we say: what his father gave him are a few books. ?

no, you would still write "is", because the subject of the verb is still what his father gave him, not a few books.

similarly:
Performed last weekend were three plays. (correct)
*Performed last weekend was three plays. (incorrect)

Sophocles's Oedipus cycle is three plays. (correct)
*Sophocles's Oedipus cycle are three plays. (incorrect)

if you find the subject in each of these, they should all make sense pretty quickly.

Lostria

kluivert 发表于 2018-9-9 19:07
犯了和我一样的错误  

Btw , 是the reason ..., the use ,,,.and the ...平行结构

明白啦！！！！！

kluivert

Lostria 发表于 2018-9-9 19:13
明白啦！！！！！

可我还不明白，楼主说上面第二题答案为are

而且我觉得没划线部分有错误 应该是 what concerns ...  而非 concern

awsd987654

Lostria 发表于 2018-9-9 18:52
看句子的主语核心词是什么，第一句是the reason, 第二句是risks

主语核心词和主语不一样吗？

kluivert

Substantive clauses and subject-verb agreement

Above, I cited the rough-and-ready rule — when a substantive clause is the subject of a sentence, it is generally construed as singular and takes a singular verb.  It’s unlikely you will see substantive clause used as subject at all on the real GMAT, and if even you do, you probably could just ignore the exception, choose the singular verb automatically, and you would be right 99% of the time.  Yes, there is an exception — the grand clarification of noun clauses and subject-verb agreement  —- and yes, I will discuss this, but first of all be aware: it is exceedingly unlike that a SC question on a live GMAT would ever stray into this territory.  For all intents and purposes, the discussion of this exception is “grammar beyond the GMAT.”

Here’s the exception.  If the substantive clause begins with a relative pronoun —- who, whom, what, where, whoever, whomever, whatever, wherever — then whether the clause is singular or plural depends on whether the relative pronoun itself is understood as singular or plural.

10) What annoys me is all the noise during the movie.

11) What annoy me are all the people who talk during the movie.

In #10, the relative pronoun is understood as singular, and thus the entire substantive clause is construed as singular: that’s why both verbs (“annoys”, “is”) are singular.  In #11, the relative pronoun is understood as plural, and thus the entire substantive clause is construed as plural: that’s why both verbs (“annoy”, “are”) are plural.

12) Whoever broke into your house in broad daylight ____ incredibly brazen.

Should this question have the singular “was” or the plural “were”?  That depends on whether we think one person or multiple people participated in this daylight break-in.  There’s absolutely no clue in the sentence that would help us to determine this (hence, this absolutely could not be a GMAT SC question!).  We would have to know or infer from context the correct verb to use.

Once again, this exception, while fascinating in and of itself, is far beyond anything you are even remotely likely to see on the GMAT.

awsd987654

kluivert 发表于 2018-9-9 19:34
Substantive clauses and subject-verb agreement

Above, I cited the rough-and-ready rule — when a su ...

厉害厉害！

awsd987654

kluivert 发表于 2018-9-9 19:34
Substantive clauses and subject-verb agreement

Above, I cited the rough-and-ready rule — when a su ...

这么说的话感觉看what后面跟的动词才比较好判断用is 还是用are啊

行素

kluivert 发表于 2018-9-9 19:34
Substantive clauses and subject-verb agreement

Above, I cited the rough-and-ready rule — when a su ...

但如你所说，那What his father gave him is three books .就不是is而是are了，因为what代表的是three books

九阳神功豆浆机

what is ....  is/v-单数
what are .... are/V-复数

猫小新

借帖回复一下，在之前被这个题弄得焦头烂额，看了RON的解释我自己觉得是这样的，不知道是否正确，仅给后来来查这道题的考友一个参考
RON原文，关于倒装与what：
in a sentence that has the construction "X is Y" -- if both X and Y are nouns/noun phrases/noun clauses -- the subject is X.
always.
therefore, the following two sentences are both correct:
the last three questions were the hardest part of the test.
the hardest part of the test was the last three questions.
in each of these constructions, the subject is before the verb.
the only time when you have a reverse construction (subject after verb) is when nothing in front of the verb is eligible to be the subject.
example:
on the table are two cell phones.
here, "on the table" cannot be a subject (prepositional phrases are not allowed to be subjects), so this sentence is forced to have a reverse construction.

you're also making another huge mistake here -- you are isolating the first part of a compound noun (i.e., a list connected with "and"). if you have a list of two or more things connected with "and", you must consider that construction as though it were a single word.

so, the part after the verb isn't just "the reason for their decoration"; it's ALL of "the reason for their decoration, the use to which primitive people put the caves, and the meaning of the magnificently depicted animals". if that were the subject of the clause (which it isn't), then you would actually need a plural verb.
然后第一个题what is...其性质就是名词，同时！what本来就是名词性从句，可以说what的从句就可以根据what的单复数决定
第二个题：what concern这里，这个concern表明了what是一个复数，所以应该用are
即是这个意思
曼哈顿上考友总结
1. Plural verb in a subordinate clause (what concern) - plural verb (what... are)   
2. no implication in the subordinate clause - singular verb (what... is)