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English grammar question | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5694 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 1 of 24 28 June 2011 at 8:50pm | IP Logged |
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English is my native language, but I'll confess I'm not 100% clear on this particular detail. Which of the two following sentence fragments, in your opinion, is correct?
Option 1. "What I've experienced is slowly developing sensations..." Option 2. "What I've experienced are slowly developing sensations..." I mostly want to go with option two, but I thought I remembered some rule learned long ago about "what" being considered to be in the singular and the verb therefore having to agree with it. Can anyone set me straight on this? Also, what type of search would I have to do on Google to find information about this? Could I search something like "English grammar verb agreement" and come up with a rule for this particular situation? (I'm asking because I was having trouble finding information through Google, due to the fact that I have no idea what to call this question of mine.) Thanks very much in advance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| xkuehn Triglot Newbie South Africa Joined 4917 days ago 5 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English, Afrikaans*, Dutch Studies: Japanese | Message 2 of 24 28 June 2011 at 9:01pm | IP Logged |
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Option 1 makes my stomach turn. It has to be wrong. I think the rule you've learnt relates to questions:
Right: "What is wrong?" Wrong: "What are wrong?" 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kappa Groupie Japan Joined 5521 days ago 99 posts - 172 votes | Message 3 of 24 28 June 2011 at 9:25pm | IP Logged |
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"What" itself may be singular but "sensations" is plural, so I vote for the second option. And if I remember correctly these things are called cleft sentences: "It is curiosity that killed the cat", "What killed the cat is curiosity" (I am not sure if those example sentences are actually grammatically correct but I guess you get the idea).
Edit: Can easily be wrong. Too sleepy to think. Re-Edit: Okay, what if the sentence started with "Something-something sensations...."? Re-Re-Edit: I admit me being sleepy doesn't have anything to do with my English knowledge, or grammar. Edited by Kappa on 28 June 2011 at 9:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mrpootys Groupie United States Joined 5612 days ago 62 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 24 28 June 2011 at 9:29pm | IP Logged |
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"What" was originally colloquial for that which and thus
would require a singular antecedent. But, how do you define grammar rules for a term thats not technically correct? Its used to also mean thos which nowadays. So its whatever is accepted where you are. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lianne Senior Member Canada thetoweringpile.blog Joined 5116 days ago 284 posts - 410 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Toki Pona, German, French | Message 5 of 24 28 June 2011 at 9:30pm | IP Logged |
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I've always had trouble with these kinds of sentences as well. One argument I can think of in favour of the second one is the following: "Slowly developing sensations are what I've experienced." You certainly wouldn't say "Slowly developing sensations is what I've experienced."
I often find it helpful to flip sentences around when the grammar's got me stumped. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 6 of 24 28 June 2011 at 9:47pm | IP Logged |
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AFAIK, these types of sentences are referred to as Wh-cleft or pseudo-cleft sentences. There are some articles about this on the Internet but nothing seems to apply to your sentence structure. Happy Googeling!
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 24 28 June 2011 at 11:12pm | IP Logged |
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Couldn't you get rid of the "what" and "is/are" thereby starting the sentence with "I've experienced slowly developing sensations..."?
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5561 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 8 of 24 29 June 2011 at 11:42am | IP Logged |
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I don't really know anything abot proper grammar, but both look ok. After thinkinfg anbout it, I would use the first, but not sure which I would spontaneously use.
To me it looks "a bit like": "A team is 11 men" "Those 11 men are a team" (Again, these look slightly awkward, but would be impossible with the is/are switched round) Although grammatically it's not quite the same: What I've experienced is sensations... Sensations are what I have experienced. Of course, the short answer is "I don't know, but I have a bit of spare time on my hands" 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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