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Ask for help > Grammaticality
Grammaticality
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t.javanshir
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Grammaticality
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Hi there,
Which one is correct in the following sentence: is or are? Is the subject "the most important problem" or "the fuels" in such sentences?
The most important problem of cars is/are the fuels they consume.
Could you refer me to some websites which explain this notion? |
11 Jan 2014
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MoodyMoody
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I don �t have websites for you, but in sentences with predicate nominatives, the subject is the one before the linking verb. In your example, the subject is "problem" and you use the verb form "is." "Fuels" is the predicate nominative, not the subject. If the beginning of the sentence is "there," such as "There are different fuels used in motor vehicles: gasoline or petrol, diesel, natural gas, and electricity stored in batteries," then the subject appears after the verb. In my example, the subject is "fuels."
On a related note, if you are wondering why I wrote " �Fuels � is the predicate nominative," the reason is that I did not use the word "fuels" in its normal sense, but as a metalinguistic construct. |
11 Jan 2014
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t.javanshir
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Thank you very much MoodyMoody. The explanation was comprehensive. |
11 Jan 2014
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