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Grammar help

Posted by Barney on August 30, 2002

In Reply to: Grammar help posted by ESC on August 29, 2002

: : : : The only thing we overlook ARE wide open spaces.

: : : : The only thing we overlook IS wide open spaces.

: : : : Paging R. Berg. Which is correct? The grammar mavens are divided on this question. The sentence is for a proposed customer service ad with a visual pun -- a scenic overlook.

: : : IS is correct. The noun that governs is "thing," the subject of the sentence.

: : : So they call themselves mavens, do they? Without having read Fowler?

: : Given that we are on the grammar track a similar question was posed to me:

: : The yolk of an egg is white
: : The yolk of an egg are white

: : The answer seemed clear to me at the time but now I'm not so sure.

: Yolk is yellow.

Then, as my son said, the yolk is on you.

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