subject-verb agreement question

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I know that the grammatically correct way is to write the sentence this

way:

The remainder of the paranasal sinuses is clear.

However, it sounds ridiculous to me! Are there any grammar rules that

allow exceptions if something just sounds odd? I think it sounds much

more normal to say:

The remainder of the paranasal sinuses are clear.

Opinions?

:-)

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Thanks so much! MS Word flags it as wrong when I do

it the way that sounds right. So, I'll be ignoring that from now on :-).

On Wed, 14 Aug 2002 08:01:00 -0500 " Rennie@Work "

writes:

> , I remember having that same question. It just about drove me

> nuts. Everyone I asked had a different opinion. In my case, I was

> dealing with:

>

> The remainder of the bones is normal.

>

> or

>

> The remainder of the bones are normal.

>

> I finally found an answer on http://www.grammarbook.com/.

>

> Here's what the author has to say about this:

>

> [begin Quote]

> Rule 8. With words that indicate portions-percent, fraction, part,

> majority, some, all, none, remainder, etc.-you must look at the

> object of the preposition to determine whether to use a singular or

> plural verb. If the object of the preposition is singular, use a

> singular verb. If the object of the preposition is plural, use a

> plural verb.

>

> Examples Fifty percent of the pie has disappeared.

> Pie is the object of the preposition of.

>

> Fifty percent of the pies have disappeared.

> Pies is the object of the preposition.

>

> One third of the city is unemployed.

> One third of the people are unemployed.

> All of the pie is gone.

> All of the pies are gone.

> Some of the pie is missing.

> Some of the pies are missing.

> [End Quote]

>

> So in your example, I would go with ARE. See, you aren't

> grammatically incorrect after all.

>

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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> Career Step graduate, 10/02/01

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>

> subject-verb agreement question

>

>

> I know that the grammatically correct way is to write the sentence

> this

> way:

>

> The remainder of the paranasal sinuses is clear.

>

> However, it sounds ridiculous to me! Are there any grammar rules

> that

> allow exceptions if something just sounds odd? I think it sounds

> much

> more normal to say:

>

> The remainder of the paranasal sinuses are clear.

>

> Opinions?

>

> :-)

>

> Thanks,

>

>

>