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3rd person

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by Fractal » Mon Sep 13, 2010 10:43 am
in the last days, i saw senteces such as the following:

The report recommended that the hospital eliminate unneeded beds and use space in other hospitals.

my questions: why don't you have to use the 3rd person --> eliminates / uses

thx
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by Fractal » Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:15 pm
just got another one:

...the netherlands appear to have been....

why not: appears

I really hope that anybody can help! thx
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by e-GMAT » Mon Sep 13, 2010 4:17 pm
Fractal wrote:in the last days, i saw senteces such as the following:

The report recommended that the hospital eliminate unneeded beds and use space in other hospitals.

my questions: why don't you have to use the 3rd person --> eliminates / uses

thx
I would like to make a minor correction in your question - when you say 3rd person, you really mean singular. So if I understand your question correctly, you are asking why is that eliminate is "plural" instead of "singular" since its subject is singular "hospital".

The answer is - Subjunctive Verb Form.

This sentence uses a bossy word - recommend. This requires use of subjunctive verb form. Typical sentence construction with such bossy words is:
Subject1...Bossy Verb...that Subject2..SUBJUNCTIVE VERB...
Subjunctive verb is always plural regardless of whether subject 2 is singular or plural.

I hope that answers your question. Please feel free to ask any further questions that you may have.

For e-GMAT users, the concept of subjunctive verb is explained in detail in the advanced concept file titled "Verb - Subjunctive"
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by e-GMAT » Mon Sep 13, 2010 4:19 pm
Fractal wrote:just got another one:

...the netherlands appear to have been....

why not: appears

I really hope that anybody can help! thx
Again, I think you may have misspelled "netherlands". I think you got this sentence from OG and if I am correct, the correct subject is neanderthals, which is plural and hence plural verb appear is correct.

Let me know if my assumption is incorrect.

Thanks,

Payal Tandon
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by Fractal » Tue Sep 14, 2010 1:00 am
perfect! thanks!

now it's clear and i was looking for subjunctive verbs in my books and in the web. do you think, that the following words are the most important ones to know for the GMAT?

to advise (that)
to ask (that)
to command (that)
to demand (that)
to desire (that)
to insist (that)
to propose (that)
to recommend (that)
to request (that)
to suggest (that)
to urge (that)

and yes, your are absolutely right, i should be "Neanderthals" instead of "Netherlands". I am sorry for that!



thanks a lot
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