A pair of architects in Britain, who say that giant arches,

@skm

The non-underlined part clearly says- how their idea would work? What does that ‘their’ refer to? It is not going to be bridges or structures or any other inanimate noun for that matter. It has to be only the pair of architects. When the text itself calls it plural, how can we doubt it? That is the reason; I asked to read the entire text for some veritable clues. So going along the context is the right track
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To begin with, kindly do not highlight the words in the question...thats not how its going to come in the GMAT.. you can draw attention towards the words late in the answer explanations if u want..and i think the OA is wrong..."a pair" is a collective noun and hence singular not plural...so the answer should have "has" and not "have"..

Now on to sub-verb agreement: For the argument that the subject is the singular a pair, May I ask to read the entire text and look for further clues( especially in the non-underlined part) as to whether the subject is singular or plural. This kind of error is easy meat for GMAT, for many jumps to wrong conclusions with just a casual glance
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now this is GMAT like question....and preety well explained by Zarrolou,,but i am also not clear whether a pair of architects is singular or plural..
although i know " a set of mutants" is singular...but here where i am going wrong.

Zarrolou and Daagh ...i request to explain this.

thanks

SKM

Before answering I just want to point out that someone must have deleted the original question, because my post is the answer, not the question!

shaileshmishra, you may find this helpful:

Usage Note: The noun pair can be followed by a singular or plural verb. The singular is always used when pair denotes the set taken as a single entity: This pair of shoes is on sale. A plural verb is used when the members are considered as individuals: The pair are working more harmoniously now. After a number other than one, pair itself can be either singular or plural, but the plural is now more common: She bought six pairs (or pair) of stockings.

source :pair

This should carify, let me know

Hi,

sorry mate but not preety clear as when i am unable to distinguish when it is acting as a set and when acting as a individual...but if possible can please give some more examples....

but thanks...

although daagh explanation i got preety clear...it was the catch in the non underlined portion...

thanks to both of you

SKM

Before answering I just want to point out that someone must have deleted the original question, because my post is the answer, not the question!

shaileshmishra, you may find this helpful:

Usage Note: The noun pair can be followed by a singular or plural verb. The singular is always used when pair denotes the set taken as a single entity: This pair of shoes is on sale. A plural verb is used when the members are considered as individuals: The pair are working more harmoniously now. After a number other than one, pair itself can be either singular or plural, but the plural is now more common: She bought six pairs (or pair) of stockings.

source :pair

hi Zarrolou and daagh,
I think pair goes singular only when we talk about items that consist of both things. What I'm trying to say is that if we say a pair of socks or shoes or lenses then both things form whatever we're talking about. A pair of architects doesn't form any such thing.

hope i am correct...
please suggest

SKM

This is beyond the question.

The usage of pair is not 100% clear, I checked a number of sites and a Rule for its usage it's not unanimous.
Having said so I think that my previous post should be a good rule:

"The singular is always used when pair denotes the set taken as a single entity". No doubt here, "a pair of scissors" denotes a single entity and requires a "is" as verb.
"A plural verb is used when the members are considered as individuals". When you can "split" the members as in this case ("a pair of architects" is not a single set like the scissors) you can use a plural verb. However, and this is the point, in this case both is/are seem correct.

This is what I've found in many web sites. Hope this helps...

ya zarrolou.....it seems gud....let me encounter some more problem basing this....
thanks anyways...

clearly say is mentioned in non-underlined part of sentence which indicates a pair is a plural here.. Giving equal importance to non underlined part plays key role in many meaning based SC questions

I only said context decides the number in certain cases. Zarrolou has gone a step ahead and elaborated on the plausible contexts. His explanation is more wholesome and focused .
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Please explain why and is wrong in B and already wrong in D

hi rrkan,

the original given sentence is as follows:
A pair of architects in Britain, who say that giant arches, bridges, and walls made of artificial bone could be easier to design and [u]build than conventional structures, and already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, for showing how their idea would work.
the coloured part starting with "who say .....than conventional structures"...actually this whole part is acting as a modifier and it is modifying a pair of architects.
now good thing with modifier is that if you remove the modifier from the sentence then also sentence must make sense.
now lets remove this modifier and hence resulting sentence will become like this:
A pair of architects in Britain and already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, for showing how their idea would work.
now reading the sentence do you think does this makes sense.
the use of parallelism marker AND conveys that both side of the and should be parallel but here
A pair of architects in Britain
and
already designed a number of structures
is not parallel ALSO THERE IS NO MAIN VERB TOO IN THIS SENTENCE.
hence use of and is wrong. in the same way option B is also wrong.
again now in option D after removing the modifier the resulting sentence becomes:
A pair of architects in Britain already designed a number of structures, including a bridge,which shows how their idea would work.
now if you read the above sentence then you will find that there is no verb in the sentence for the subject "a pair of architect"
and the use of HAVE before already rectifies this error which is done in option C.
so in this case use of already is not wrong but rather highlighted already indicates that a verb is required before already.
SKM
KUDOS IF IT HELPED.

A pair of architects in Britain, who say that giant arches, bridges, and walls made of artificial bone could be easier to design and build than conventional structures, and already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, for showing how their idea would work.

(A) build than conventional structures, and already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, for showing
(B) build than conventional structures, and they have already designed a number of structures, which includes a bridge, to show
(C) build than conventional structures, have already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, to show
(D) also to build than conventional structures, already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, which shows ( and also is redundant)
(E) to build than with conventional structures, have already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, which shows


This is a good question. The trick here read without the fluff as this sentence has a massive "who clause"

You need easier to design and build

A pair of architects in Britain, who say that giant arches, bridges, and walls made of artificial bone could be easier to design and build than conventional structures, and already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, for showing how their idea would work.

Now the subject is a pair of architects where's the verb? if we have ", and " that starts another independent clause so you need a subject verb for that

Hence option C is best

Great Q. Helps to develop a better understanding of use of 'pair' as plural vs. singular.

Before we want to attempt this question, let's remember one basic discipline.

The greatest thumb rule is that from the first minute when you begin to prepare for GMAT, you had better accept GMAT's view as correct. Seriously, if it says a pair is singular, it is singular, and if it says, a pair is plural, then it is plural. There is no second opinion about it.

Any criticism of GMAT's perception is best left to the greats such as the Rons, the Staceys, the Mikes or the Ninjas. All we have to do is to find the best of the five choices taking into account the context.

Any habit of wasting time on the veracity of GMAT's writing will be a colossal blunder in the Hall.

The takeaway is-- What is the harm in taking the GMAT questions in "as is what is" condition and in concentrating on the five choices?
(This suggestion holds good only for GMAT questions.)
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A pair of architects in Britain, who say that giant arches, bridges, and walls made of artificial bone could be easier to design and build than conventional structures, and already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, for showing how their idea would work.

(A) build than conventional structures, and already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, for showing
(B) build than conventional structures, and they have already designed a number of structures, which includes a bridge, to show
(C) build than conventional structures, have already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, to show
(D) also to build than conventional structures, already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, which shows
(E) to build than with conventional structures, have already designed a number of structures, including a bridge, which shows

look at choice D
" a bridge, which shows' is a bridge we already know that this bridge shows. this meaning is not fit in the context of the sentence. D is gone
if we have " a bridge that shows", we have to understand that there are many bridges and we mention the bridge that shows... . also this meaning is not fit to the sentence.

difference between " that shows " and " which shows" is hard but gmat never test us this difference.

Hi Experts KarishmaB, GMATNinja, MartyTargetTestPrep

Please advise whether the subject "A Pair" is singular or plural. Do we need to consider what comes after "of" to determine the sub-verb agreement.

Thanks
Kitty

There are no clear-cut rules for this sort of thing, unfortunately. It all depends on the context, so your best bet is to be conservative and look for other decision points.

(A) has to go because there's no main verb, making it an incomplete sentence.

If you strip out the "who" modifier in (B), you're left with: "A pair of architects in Britain, and they have already designed a number of structures..." The first half is missing a verb, so (B) is out.

The "which" modifiers in (D) and (E) are confusing, so that's one vote in favor of (C). As for the verb: we're talking about multiple architects who designed something, so using a plural verb seems reasonable enough. And notice that there's a plural pronoun in the non-underlined portion of the sentence (their idea), giving us further evidence that it's okay to think of the pair or architects as a plural entity.

More importantly, it's obvious who's doing the action: who designed the structures? The architects (plural). Since the meaning is perfectly clear and logical, there's really no reason to worry about inventing"rules" for this sort of thing.

(D) and (E) have confusing modifiers that cause meaning issues, so (C) is the best option.

I hope that helps!
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