Question about SV number agreement for phrases

Question

I have a question from OG 2016, Q16 regarding a concept that I learned:

Rising inventories, when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.

My question is:
Aren't "rising inventories" considered as a phrase? and hence a phrase as a subject is singular! which would agree with a singualr verb "leads"? of course I don't mean can lead but one of the answer choices has "possibly leads" and the explanation noted that inventories are plural so possibly leads is wrong because it is singular, without mentioning the phrase "rising inventories" as singular.

I understand the logic of the correct answer but I misunderstood the concept of phrases if subject are always singular. unless "rising inventories" isn't a phrase in the first place.

Thanks in advance

aditya8062 · Answer

in the expression "RISING INVENTORIES" the prefix "RISING" is an ADJECTIVE and it does not affect the grammar of "INVENTORIES" ----->this means that "RISING INVENTORIES" is PLURAL !!

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi msaa3ed, can you let us know where you read this and in what context?

msaa3ed · Answer

I subscribed in e-gmat verbal online. In their course, there are things that are always considered as singular when they are subjects such as:
- phrases and clauses
- collective nouns. (team, department, class, etc..)
- pronouns ending with -thing, -body, -ever, -one. 
-each.

thank you aditya8062 for your reply,

As for my example, Is "rising inventory" consider as a phrase?? rising is an adjective as you mentioned. I wanted to ensure that the rule is always applicable that phrases and clauses when they are subjects act as singulars!

ccooley · Answer

By 'phrases as subjects', they probably mean cases like these:

Taking our Great Pyrenees for a walk  wears me out.

Everything that looks like that is singular. For instance, this is  wrong :  Taking our dogs for walks  wear me out.

Even though 'dogs' and 'walks' are obviously plural, the whole phrase is singular.

What you've got there ('rising inventories') is sometimes called a 'noun phrase', which might be the source of the confusion. Noun phrases just consist of a noun plus the modifiers that modify it. They can be either singular or plural, depending on whether the noun is singular or plural. Here, 'rising' isn't being used as a verb, it's being used as an adjective which modifies 'inventories'.

Interestingly, the following sentence would be  technically correct  to the best of my knowledge, although it is a bit clunky and lacks concision.

The rising of inventories  leads to production cutbacks.

Note the singular verb, 'leads'.

Question about SV number agreement for phrases

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