Sentence Correction

leaves of the tree that is

leaves of the tree that are

are both these constructions grammatically correct? in the first construction "that" refers to tree and in the second construction "that" refers to leaves.

Thanks,
Sai

Can you post the complete sentence??

Here you go

Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in
1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the
earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles Islands.

(A) sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at
34 million years old, made it the earliest known
mammal of

(B) sloth, that they found in Puerto Rico in 1991, has
been dated at 34 million years old, thus making
it the earliest mammal known on

(C) sloth that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was
dated at 34 million years old, making this the
earliest known mammal of

(D) sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been
dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth
the earliest known mammal on

(E) sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was
dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the
earliest known mammal of

Construction C is told to be wrong - saying that arms is plural and "that was" has a singular verb...

Hi,
Fossils is the subject in this. So, the verb should be plural one.(not was, which is singular).

Fossils of the arm of a sloth that was........

Fossils is the subject here which is plural
and thus verb should be plural.

IMO D

winnerhere wrote:leaves of the tree that is

leaves of the tree that are

are both these constructions grammatically correct? in the first construction "that" refers to tree and in the second construction "that" refers to leaves.

Thanks,
Sai

You're correct -- the first would refer to tree, the second to leaves. In real life you would probably want to re-write the second one for even greater clarity.

Thank for the input guys...

IMO D

What is the OA for the post ...

winnerhere wrote:Here you go

Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in
1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the
earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles Islands.

(A) sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at
34 million years old, made it the earliest known
mammal of

(B) sloth, that they found in Puerto Rico in 1991, has
been dated at 34 million years old, thus making
it the earliest mammal known on

(C) sloth that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was
dated at 34 million years old, making this the
earliest known mammal of

(D) sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been
dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth
the earliest known mammal on

(E) sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was
dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the
earliest known mammal of

Construction C is told to be wrong - saying that arms is plural and "that was" has a singular verb...

I always prefer non-underlined part of the sentence to pick singular/plural. If sloth is subject, u cannot date sloth to 34 million years old.In order to make the sentence sound logically correct, Fossils has to be subject.

Thanks

Jim@Grockit wrote:

winnerhere wrote:leaves of the tree that is

leaves of the tree that are

are both these constructions grammatically correct? in the first construction "that" refers to tree and in the second construction "that" refers to leaves.

Thanks,
Sai

You're correct -- the first would refer to tree, the second to leaves. In real life you would probably want to re-write the second one for even greater clarity.

Hi Jim,

I think only the first one is correct. "That" is a relative pronoun which refers to closest noun(tree) in both the cases.

vikram4689 wrote:

Jim@Grockit wrote:

winnerhere wrote:leaves of the tree that is

leaves of the tree that are

are both these constructions grammatically correct? in the first construction "that" refers to tree and in the second construction "that" refers to leaves.

Thanks,
Sai

You're correct -- the first would refer to tree, the second to leaves. In real life you would probably want to re-write the second one for even greater clarity.

Hi Jim,

I think only the first one is correct. "That" is a relative pronoun which refers to closest noun(tree) in both the cases.

I disagree, but I am out of town and thus do not have my reference books at hand. The leaves of the tree that are brown and wrinkled are dying; the leaves that are still green are fine. Intonation in spoken English would make the sentence clear; in writing, the interruption is undesirable and should be avoided.

I will try to remember to look it up when I get home. The most logical thing is for "that" to refer to what's immediately before it, but I believe it ultimately restricts the noun it restricts.

Hi Jim,

The leaves of the tree that are brown and wrinkled are dying;

Relative pronouns refer to noun immediately preceding them but if they may refer to other noun if the noun preceding them does not make sense and hence there is no ambiguity. That is why, this sentence is fine because tree cannot be wrinkled.

Had this sentence or original sentence been

Medicines are formed from leaves of the tree that (is/are) brown in color. Now sentence can be:
Medicines are formed from leaves of the tree that is brown in color. (that refer to tree)
Medicines are formed from leaves of the tree that are brown in color. ( that refer to leaves)
So this sentence is wrong because of pronoun error.

Coming to our sentence, "leaves of the tree is/are". Whether this sentence is correct is wrong depends on the object (as shown above). Since we have been a clause we cannot actually tell whether this is correct or not.

Please share your thoughts on this matter.

IMO D.

Could you let me know the OA please.

Cheers.