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Should the copulative verb be singular or plural in this type of sentence:
A crucial question is / are the causes of misunderstandings ?
Carmen Silva-Corvalan
Posted 2014-08-14T20:41:32.903
Reputation: 31
Singular or plural copulative verb in a question?
Answers
1
I would say:
A crucial question is what are the causes of misunderstanding(s)?
is matches question and are matches causes.
What are the causes of misunderstanding(s)?
becomes the crucial question.
Also I would consider misunderstanding as uncountable, but that may just be me.
user3169
Posted 2014-08-14T20:41:32.903
Reputation: 29 679
1I think it's General Reference that the grammatical subject here is "a crucial question" - which is *singular*, so it requires a singular verb form. – FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica – 2014-08-14T20:57:40.290
1You’ll also want to have number agreement between “question” and “cause”. – Tyler James Young – 2014-08-14T22:54:23.513
2I would revise to write "A crucial question is one that causes misunderstandings." That sounds better to me, if you are definite crucial question and it avoids the dubious verb form. (I didn't look up a rule, but "is" and "are" both sound a little off in your example, which is why I suggest revising it entirely.) You could also write simply "Crucial questions cause misunderstandings." – Will Murphy – 2014-08-14T23:22:27.367