What is the Subject here ?

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rahul.sehgal@btgchampion: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 40; Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Location: New Delhi, India; Thanked: 3 times

by rahul.sehgal@btgchampion » Sun Feb 09, 2014 8:36 am

I was reading an article and thus came up with this question. The statement is given below -

"The study found that the negative emotional effect of disruptive events - things like being interrupted while in the middle of doing something - were amplified by sleep loss."

I thought, the subject here is 'negative emotional effect'. But, going by the verb 'were', it seems the subject here is 'things'.

Am I missing something in my understanding here with respect to Subject Verb Agreement ?

Best Regards,
Rahul Sehgal

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Feb 09, 2014 8:36 am

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by [email protected] » Sun Feb 09, 2014 11:17 am

Hi Rahul,

This is a badly written sentence. You ARE correct: the subject is "negative emotional effect", which is singular. The verb doesn't match the subject. Assuming we ignore the style issues with the sentence, the author could have solved the problem that you noted by turning the subject into a plural: "negative emotional effects."

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rahul.sehgal@btgchampion: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 40; Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Location: New Delhi, India; Thanked: 3 times

by rahul.sehgal@btgchampion » Sun Feb 09, 2014 11:21 am

Thanks for Clarifying Rich.

Best Regards,
Rahul Sehgal

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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sun Feb 09, 2014 12:55 pm

That's a mistake that you can find in a lot of places. I find reading blogs and correcting their grammar to be a decent exercise in going from everyday language to GMAT language.

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rahul.sehgal@btgchampion: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 40; Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Location: New Delhi, India; Thanked: 3 times

by rahul.sehgal@btgchampion » Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:03 pm

I agree Bill. This was one of the articles from Business Insider.

As I was reading, I told myself to focus on understanding the Subject Verb agreement as well and thus came up with the question.

I am planning to start reading more of GMAT style writing material from sources such as The Economist, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, etc.

Let me know in case you see any issues with the plan. Thank you for your reply !!

Best Regards,
Rahul Sehgal

rahul.sehgal@btgchampion: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 40; Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Location: New Delhi, India; Thanked: 3 times

by rahul.sehgal@btgchampion » Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:04 pm

Best Regards,
Rahul Sehgal

Bill@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1248; Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:57 pmFollowed by: 192 members; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 503 times; GMAT Score:780

by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:11 pm

I think that's a very good plan because it will also help with Reading Comprehension if you use your RC strategy while doing them.

If you're into sports, ESPN.com usually has some grammatical problems with their articles. Lately I've noticed a lot of sentences that give you everything (subject, modifiers, clauses) but no actual verb to pair with the subject

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rahul.sehgal@btgchampion: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 40; Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Location: New Delhi, India; Thanked: 3 times

by rahul.sehgal@btgchampion » Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:19 pm

Yes, I do read about sports as well. I normally prefer www.cricinfo.com and it is basically related to Cricket (a sport Indians love playing and seeing

).

But, going forward, I will check ESPN.com as well to make sure I am able to spot the errors you specified. Thanks once again for your prompt reply.

Best Regards,
Rahul Sehgal

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