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Singular - Plural confusion

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by Diehard_Learner » Sun Sep 30, 2012 11:23 pm
Which of the following two sentences is correct? Or are both acceptable?

A. What is needed is cheap and efficient ways of storing power.
B. What are needed are cheap and efficient ways of storing power.

Thanks in advance.
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by Jim@StratusPrep » Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:13 am
Changed A to correct form. Both of these sentences are pretty bad in the passive form.

What is needed is a cheap and efficient way of storing power.
What are needed are cheap and efficient ways of storing power.
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by EducationAisle » Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:39 am
A is correct, B is not. "what.." clauses, when they are the subjects of the sentences, are always singular!!

Just one of those rules that you would be better off memorizing:).
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by Diehard_Learner » Wed Oct 10, 2012 10:09 am
EducationAisle wrote:A is correct, B is not. "what.." clauses, when they are the subjects of the sentences, are always singular!!

Just one of those rules that you would be better off memorizing:).
Hi Ashish,

It's not clear how to apply the "what clauses always singular" rule to sentence B - assuming there are several cheap and efficient ways of storing power.

Do you mean it should be "What is needed is cheap and efficient ways of storing power"?

To take another example, "what we need are ships", should it be "what we need is ships"?

Thank you.
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by EducationAisle » Wed Oct 10, 2012 10:12 am
The correct sentences are:


What is needed is cheap and efficient ways of storing power.

What we need is ships.
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