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Subject Verb Q

by kisna_428 » Wed Oct 02, 2013 4:33 am
This is the text from Princeton review, verbal workout 2 nod edition on page 30.

2. The commerce department , which usually does't make any fiscal announcements until after the budget..


My question is, which usually does' t makes should be the correct sentence ?
Can anyone help with this, to find whether makes should be the correct verb to use since we are talking about one department ?
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by theCodeToGMAT » Wed Oct 02, 2013 5:04 am
Kisna, i agree with you.. considering SVA it should be "makes"

But, can you please copy the complete sentence.. just to be sure whether "Subjunctive" is playing its part or not.

Thanks!
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by kisna_428 » Wed Oct 02, 2013 5:11 am
The commerce department , which usually does't make any fiscal announcements until after budget is ratified, announced that it's accounting practices would be overhauled next year.


I wonder prep book itself has error!
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by rakeshd347 » Wed Oct 02, 2013 5:28 am
kisna_428 wrote:The commerce department , which usually does't make any fiscal announcements until after budget is ratified, announced that it's accounting practices would be overhauled next year.


I wonder prep book itself has error!
Hi Kisna,

We don't use "s or es" with does or do. As does already have es so we don't use with the verb.

Example:

John does't write letter.....correct we don't need writes here.
Peter doesn't eat pizza.....correct we don't need eats here even though peter is singular here but we have already used doesn't so we don't use s or es with doesn't.

In your sentence:
The commerce department , which usually does't make any fiscal announcements...which refers to the commerce department, which is singular but as we have used "doesn't" we don't need makes here mate.

Suppose the sentence was this:
Wrong sentence----The commerce department , which usually make any fiscal announcements...then it was wrong in this case we need "makes" we don't have doesn't.

Correct sentence---The commerce department , which usually makes any fiscal announcements----now this is correct because we haven't used doesn't here so we need makes here.

I hope this clarifies let me know if you still have doubt.
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by mevicks » Wed Oct 02, 2013 6:06 am
kisna_428 wrote:This is the text from Princeton review, verbal workout 2 nod edition on page 30.

2. The commerce department , which usually does't make any fiscal announcements until after the budget..


My question is, which usually does' t makes should be the correct sentence ?
Can anyone help with this, to find whether makes should be the correct verb to use since we are talking about one department ?
Hi Kisna,

Here the negative auxiliary verb doesn't requires make, a verb in its base form. Negative sentences use the auxiliary verbs don't, doesn't and didn't etc. They require the verb to be in its base form.

Eg: he doesn't go there [correct, here go is in base form]
he doesn't goes there [Incorrect, here the verb goes is not in the base form]

For more examples check out this page:
Verb Forms and Verb Tenses

Hope that helps,
Vivek
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by mevicks » Wed Oct 02, 2013 6:15 am
The complete sentence from the book:
The Commerce Department, which usually doesn't make any fiscal announcements until after the budget is ratified, announced that its accounting practices would be overhauled next year.
Regards,
Vivek
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by vinay1983 » Wed Oct 02, 2013 6:45 am
Request to all, kindly post the complete post or correct form of sentence or phrase on this forum. Many a times, after the solution or comments are made, the sentence or phrase is corrected leading to untold confusion among forum viewers. Remember their are more people viewing the forum than the registered users. In this case, the actual sentence is correct as it is written, hence no point in having discussion over this.

Please excuse my strong view in this regard. But this had to be said.

Request all to take this in the right spirit
You can, for example never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to!
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by kisna_428 » Wed Oct 02, 2013 8:04 am
Thanks comrades!

By the way, another two sentences
1.This sandwich is the only one of all the sandwiches made at the deli that is in edible.

My question is, what is the subject of is ?
If the subject is one (of all the sandwiches) , if I have to describe sandwiches
How would I do that ?

To be clear, let me post another question after we are done with this question!
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by vinay1983 » Wed Oct 02, 2013 8:31 am
kisna_428 wrote:Thanks comrades!

By the way, another two sentences
1.This sandwich is the only one of all the sandwiches made at the deli that is in edible.

My question is, what is the subject of is ?
If the subject is one (of all the sandwiches) , if I have to describe sandwiches
How would I do that ?

To be clear, let me post another question after we are done with this question!
I assume your question is related to the above post. Here "is" relates to the "the sandwich". if we have to say "sandwiches" we have to use "are" in the sentence you have posted.

I hope I was able to clear your doubt
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by mevicks » Wed Oct 02, 2013 8:45 am
kisna_428 wrote:Thanks comrades!

By the way, another two sentences
1.This sandwich is the only one of all the sandwiches made at the deli that is in edible.

My question is, what is the subject of is ?
If the subject is one (of all the sandwiches) , if I have to describe sandwiches
How would I do that ?

To be clear, let me post another question after we are done with this question!
Hi Kisna,

As mentioned by Vinay the subject of the sentence is "This sandwich" which is singular and thus we require a singular verb "is"

Another way to look at it from a GMAT perspective is to simply ignore the Prepositional phrase "of all the sandwiches made at the deli". So essentially the bare bone statement with the subject and verb is:
This sandwich is the only one that is in edible.

Regards,
Vivek
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by theCodeToGMAT » Wed Oct 02, 2013 9:06 am
Kisna, adding upon the above comments, I would like to make you more familiar with such constructs:

Case 1:
one of the buildings is RED colored
--> "is" is clearly referring to singular subject "one building"

Case 2:
One of the buildings that are situated near the sea is RED colored.
--> when we introduce pronoun "that" then it refers,for this case, to nearest noun.. So, "are" is referring to "buildings"
--> "is" is going to "one building"
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by kisna_428 » Thu Oct 03, 2013 2:35 am
If I have sentence
This sandwich is the only one of all the sandwiches made at the deli that __ inedible.

What should I pick, is or are ?


Both work but meaning changes accordingly ?
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by theCodeToGMAT » Thu Oct 03, 2013 2:43 am
kisna_428 wrote:If I have sentence
This sandwich is the only one of all the sandwiches made at the deli that __ inedible.
What should I pick, is or are ?
Both work but meaning changes accordingly ?
Both don't work here, "is" is the valid usage..

If you wish to put "that" for sandwiches then,

This is one of the sandwiches that are made at the deli
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by mevicks » Thu Oct 03, 2013 3:20 am
kisna_428 wrote: This sandwich is the only one of all the sandwiches made at the deli that __ inedible.
The subject of the sentence is "This sandwich". To use are in the sentence you would have to omit the article the from the phrase "This sandwich is the only" ; as you correctly pointed out, doing this would alter the meaning of the sentence. The article helps us to pinpoint a particular sandwich.

  • This sandwich is the only one of all the sandwiches made at the deli that is inedible. [All other sandwiches at deli are EDIBLE]

    This sandwich is only one of all the sandwiches made at the deli that are inedible. [Our special sandwich here is no more special. Just another INEDIBLE sandwich from a group of INEDIBLE sandwiches at deli]
Hope that helps,
Vivek
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by vinay1983 » Thu Oct 03, 2013 3:22 am
kisna_428 wrote:If I have sentence
This sandwich is the only one of all the sandwiches made at the deli that __ inedible.

What should I pick, is or are ?


Both work but meaning changes accordingly ?
NO! You have to use"is" here. See you are referring to "the sandwich" AND NOT "sandwiches"

In general if you are using "the" be wary of it, the noun following the is almost always singular.

Here it is not about meaning as it is about usage and pronoun agreement.

You can say

The car, which is red in colour belongs to me

These shirts that are lying on the couch are mine

OR

The shirts that are lying on the couch are mine

See the construction in the above posts maybe now you have a idea about the usage of is and are[/b]
You can, for example never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to!
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