tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post8465062908074078527..comments2023-09-05T12:51:25.656-05:00Comments on edittorrent: Subjects, Verbs, and ZombiesEdittorrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-481476868041236742015-12-09T12:13:57.744-06:002015-12-09T12:13:57.744-06:00Re: "Let's have lunch."
I'm pro...Re: "Let's have lunch."<br /><br />I'm probably wrong, but I think of this as an imperative sentence, with an implied "you" as the subject, "let" as the verb, and "us" as the direct object, leaving "have lunch" as the indirect object(?!).<br /><br />Adriannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-67720325167128681312015-12-08T18:39:44.626-06:002015-12-08T18:39:44.626-06:00Very good point.
I also found sentences that star...Very good point. <br />I also found sentences that started with gerunds could be "disagreeable", like:<br />Herding zombies and gargoyles was my first job.<br /><br />The actual subject is the gerund "herding," but my students sometimes see the plural nouns right after that and grab that as the 'verbifier."<br /><br />I do think that part of our problem-- I have trouble enunciating this, though I know what I mean-- is that there are parts of speech (nouns, etc.) and there are sentence elements (the subject, etc.). I never think to do this, but that's why when a verb is the verb in a sentence, I should call it "predicate." It's a verb in word form, but in the sentence it's a predicate.<br /><br />And a subject doesn't have to be a noun. It can be a gerund (Herding) or a phrase (To do your best is all I ask of you). <br /><br />So we need to get past the simple notion that "nouns" dictate the number. Yes, they often do, but it's the subject (not necessarily of the whole sentence, but of that verb) which determines whether the verb is plural or singular.<br /><br />That said, if I were Grammar Goddess, the first thing I'd do would be get rid of the subject/verb agreement rule, which has no use (I can already tell from the subject what the number is) and leads to abominations like "Everybody is gathering in the conference room." <br /><br /><br />Subject after verb -- we called it "inverted construction" when I took advanced grammar. <br />Even "Let's have lunch" is inverted, isn't it? Or maybe not? Is there a hidden subject like "I would let us have lunch?" No, that's dumb. But it can't be "Us let have lunch." Or "Lunch let us have."?<br /><br />AliciaEdittorrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-45097196384285306162015-12-08T15:12:42.771-06:002015-12-08T15:12:42.771-06:00Great post. (I'm sooo happy to see activity h...Great post. (I'm sooo happy to see activity here again.)<br /><br />The most common subject-verb agreement mistake I see happens when the subject comes after the verb, especially when using a contraction. For example,<br /><br /><i>There's at least three zombies in the garage!</i><br /><br /><i>There's</i> is a contraction of <i>there is</i>, so the verb is just barely noticeable, and the subject, <i>three zombies</i>, comes after the verb. I suppose it doesn't help that using the correct verb leads to the awkward contraction <i>there're</i>.<br /><br />(By the way, is there a general term for sentences where the subject comes after the verb? It's not quite Yoda-speak, "In the garage, at least three zombies there are.")Adriannoreply@blogger.com