Notional Agreement
Agreement with Homogeneous Subjects
1. A plural verb-predicate is used with homogeneous subjects connected by the conjunction and:
John and Peter aremy friends.
Note 1: If coordinated nouns refer to one person or thing, a singular verb-predicate is used:
The bread and butter waswholesome food.
The secretary and typist is in the office.
If the article is repeated, two persons or objects are meant, and a plural verb-predicate is used:
The bread and the butter areon the table.
The secretary and the typist arein the office.
Note 2: If a singular subject is modified by two or more attributes connected by and, a singular verb-predicate is used, when one person or object is meant:
A black and white kitten waslying on the sofa.
But if the attributes modify different persons or objects, the verb is in the plural and the article is repeated:
A black and a white kittenwere lying on the sofa.
But uncountables have no articles:
Classical and light music haveboth their admires.
In modern hotels hot and cold waterare supplied in every room.
2.With homogeneous subjects connected by the conjunctions not only ... but also, either ... or, or, neither ... nor the verb predicate agrees with the nearest subject:
Not only my brother but also my parents werepresent there.
Either your brakes or your eyesightis at fault.
Neither you nor Iam ready for the trip.
3. With homogeneous subjects connected by the conjunctions as well as, rather than, as much as, more than, with (or together with) the verb-predicate agrees with the first subject:
The manager as well as/ rather than/ more than/ as much as/ the members of the firm is responsible for the present situation.
My parents as well as my sister areteachers.
A woman with her children wassitting under the tree.
The students together with their teacherare in favour of the plan.
In Modern English agreement is often a conflict between form and meaning when the principle of grammatical agreement is not observed. It means that the form of some nouns may be singular but the meaning occurs plural, or the form may be plural but the meaning is singular. This type of agreement is sometimes called notional agreement.
1. With subjects expressed by collective nouns which are plural in meaning but singular in form (family, committee, crew, board, team, government, party, army, etc.) the predicate is either in the singular or in the plural; taken as a whole, or a collection of individuals taken separately:
The governmenthas issued a new edict.
The government were divided in their opinion.
My familyare all sportsmen.
My familyis small.
2. Subjects expressed by collective nouns of multitude (cattle, poultry, police, infantry, clergy, gentry, guard, people) though singular in form, always have a plural verb-predicate.
Note: The noun “people” in the meaning “народ”, “нация” has a singular verb:
The people weresitting at their doors.
This people inhabits the Northern deserts.
The policeare all over the place.
The cattle areall gone, probably driven off.
3. Subjects expressed by nouns denoting measure, weight, time,etc. have a singular verb-predicate when the whole amount is meant, not the units:
Three yards is not enough for this dress.
Ten years isa long time.
A million dollarsis a lot of money.
4. Notional agreement is also observed with word-groups, the first element of which denotes quantity, such as a number of, a variety of, a lot of, plenty of, a mass of, etc.In most cases the form of the predicate depends on the second element:
A number of cars were parked before the building.
A great variety of books were recently published.
There werea lot of students at the grand meeting.
There was a lot of time yet.
The nouns “number” and “variety”as subjects may retain their concrete meaning “количество”, “разнообразие”. In this case they are used with the definite article and a singular verb-predicate:
The number of books isnot great.
The variety of questions was surprising.
5. Subjects expressed by such invariable plural nouns as goods, contents, riches, clothes, wages, etc. have a plural verb-predicate:
The boy’s clothes wereshabby.
The goods have just arrived.
The contents of his letter areunknown.
6. Subjects expressed by such invariable singular nouns as hair, money, gate (ворота), information (сведения), progress (успехи), funeral (похороны), advice have a singular verb-predicate:
His money isin the drawer.
Her hair islong.
The gate waslocked.
Subjects expressed by invariable singular nouns ending in–s (measles, mumps, billiards, dominoes, economics, statistics, news) have a singular verb-predicate:
No news isgood news.
Though nouns in -ics, which are names of sciences and other abstract notions, have a singular agreement, they may have a plural verb-predicate when denoting practical application, qualities, different activities, etc.:
Whatare your politics?
His phonetics arenot bad at all.
Statistics in this article arenot quite correct.
Your tactics areobvious.
Note 1. The phrase more than one, though logically plural, always takes the verb in the singular. On the other hand, the expression one or two always takes a plural verb:
There is more than one answer to your question.
There are one or two things I need to discuss with you.
The reason may be the fact that an accompanying noun in the former case is in the singular, while in the latter — in the plural.
Note 2.The plural forms heaps and lots, when used colloquially to mean a large amount or number, take a singular or a plural verb depending on the construction:
There islots (heaps) more to do
There waslots (heaps) of love in his letter
There arelots (heaps) of people who don’t think so.
Note 3. Nouns like family, team, group, class, party, governmenttake a singular verb when combined with the relative pronoun which,and it can be substituted by it. A plural verb goes with the relative pronoun who, which can be substituted by they:
His family, which is a numerous one, can trace its history back to the Middle Ages.
His family, whoare great musicians, have received their education in Paris.