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Subject-verb agreement issue

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Subject-verb agreement issue

by vinni.k » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:11 am
Hi All,
I searched a lot on the following "subjects", but did not get anything useful regarding their singularity or plurality.

Are the following subjects singular or plural ?

1. The Philippines offer an unparalleled vacation experience.

2. The Chinese offer an unparalleled vacation experience.

3. The French offer an unparalleled vacation experience.

4. The Americans offer an unparalleled vacation experience

At first instance these sentences seems to be very easy but trust me I have to scratch my head after checking the answers.

One of the GMAT book says, "The Philippines" is singular, so, the first sentence is incorrect because the verb should be "offers" and not "offer"

What about other sentences ?
I have searched in one of the best dictionaries and that says, The French is plural. If The French is plural, then what is wrong with The Philippines.

I am pissed. I have scratched my head thousand times and I don't know what I am missing.

Please, anyone, help me in recognizing these subjects.

Thanks & Regards
Vinni
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:31 am
Hey Vinni,

Quick explanations on these - they're all kind of unique cases (which is why I wouldn't worry too much about these, specifically):

1) "The Philippines" is a truncated form of "the Philippine islands" in which "Philippine" is an adjective. But it's also the name of a country, and countries are considered singular (The United States, although "states" is plural, is one country, and the same is true of the Philippines). Now, if you're talking about the islands and not the country ("the Philippines are some of the most beautiful islands in the world") then it's plural.

2-3) Similarly, "the Chinese" and "the French" are really phrases that imply the plural word "people" afterward. That's why those are plural - like "Philippine", they're adjectives that imply a noun afterward just based on common usage. And they're different from:

4) The Americans - that's plural because it's really a type of people. And because stylistically it's right to use plural (whereas you wouldn't say "the Chineses"), it has that 's' on the end for good measure.


_____________________________

Another thought on your question. "The Philippines" refers to the islands or the country, but not the people. So to truly be in line with "the Chinese" or "the Americans" you'd use "The Filipinos".

_____________________________

Now, I'd be pretty surprised if a GMAT question hinged on whether or not you used these nationality-adjectives properly, since so many of them are irregular. And that's not really what the GMAT is about. These are all adjectives used as nouns. For Subject-Verb Agreement I'd spend much more of your time on noting modifying phrases that are tricky but logical, such as "The House of Representatives" ("of Representatives" just modifies the singular "The House"). These can still be tricky, but there's a logical way to determine the true subject and it's not a rule that you either know or you don't particular to that word. You may see any of these nationalities on the test, but I couldn't imagine a well-written question trying to trap you with the singularity/plurality of "The Philippines" because really it could be both, depending on whether you mean the islands or the country.
Brian Galvin
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Veritas Prep

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by vinni.k » Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:22 pm
Brian, thanks for your reply.

I was just practicing SC drills and this kind of single question popped up and forced me to compare with other words, such as the Chinese, and the Americans, which i thought to be plural. So, this curiosity forced me to know more about "The Filipinos".

But if GMAT does not test the usage of these words, then I should not be worried.

Thanks Brian for clearing the doubt.

Regards
Vinni
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