My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this

Question

My family has been prominent , well-to-do people in
this middle-western city for three generations

A) My family has been prominent
B) My prominent family includes
C) My family is prominent
D) My family have been prominent
E) prominent in my family are

Edit: The sentence has been taken from the novel "The Great Gatsby", probably from page 2

BKimball · Answer

jagveerbrar,

I like that you're taking the time to push yourself to create questions, but I want to revise your answer:

The GMAT follows the rules of standard American English. One important rule that is different in Commonwealth English and American English is that collective nouns need to be singular. Collective nouns are words such as:

Family
Army
Team
Government
Everyone

All of these words need a singular verb. Family has. Army is. Team wins. Government decides. Everyone walks.

In short: When in doubt, think singular!

In your example, since you're using "family" the correct verb tense would be "has."

Brett

jagveerbrar · Answer

Hi Brett,

Thank you for your reply. The reason I put this question was precisely the same that you have pointed out. I was also stumped upon reading "have" instead of "has" and I could immediately recall Manhattan's concept of collective nouns being singular. But this question is different. At first glance, the subject indeed appears to be "family" but upon a careful look, you would find that the subject is in fact "people", which is plural and hence the use of "have". 
This is why I thought that this could make an excellent question.

Best Regards
Jaggy

Anonymous · Answer

I don't really see how "people" can be the subject of the verb "to be"...

jagveerbrar · Answer

Okay, first of all, lets clarify what the author intends to say. He does not mean that the family was prominent. Instead, he means that the people, how comprised the family, were prominent. A prominent family is one with, say, 15 members, which is not inline with "well-to-do" as such. But prominent people, say, only 2 members but influential are indeed inline with "well-to-do".

Now when we are clear about author's intent, we can rephrase the sentence by placing the nouns at more appropriate positions without changing the actual meaning as follows:
"Prominent, well-to-do people  have been  my family in this middle-western city for three generations."

For the information, the sentence has been taken from the novel "The Great Gatsby", probably from page 2

Zatarra · Answer

Ihe guy who posted this wants to say that this is an inverted sentence

Anonymous · Answer

Still awkward for me, but thanks for the answer.

Zatarra · Answer

Hi u r making a very fundamental mistake and it would be good if others confirm .
"Prominent, well-to-do people  have been     in  my family in this middle-western city for three generations."

Zatarra · Answer

Just the way u cant say promminient basketballers have been my team
U say Prom Basketballers have been in my team.
This is not an inverted sentence.An inverted sentence requires certain signal words like "It" - a placeholder to signify that the subject is yet to follow,

jagveerbrar · Answer

Thank you mundasingh123 for your reply.

I went through the inverted subject topic of Manhattan SC's subject-verb chapter. I could not find any requirement of signalling words such as "in". Personally I feel "Person A and person B have been my family since long" is fine. Other people's views are welcome.

Zatarra · Answer

in  is a preposition and not a signalling word.I think what u said is informal english.
Person A & B have been my family members since long.
What I said is that you think its an inverted sentence but actually its not an inverted sentence .

Gmat English is more formal

daagh · Answer

Jagveer:

I do appreciate your initiative to post new texts. But while doing so, you must adhere to certain basic things. In any GMAT SC example, choice A will be just the same underlined as in the text. In your case, you have given the text choice in D. This is not the custom.

jagveerbrar · Answer

Sure, I didn't realize it. I will take care in future.

jagveerbrar · Answer

So what is the conclusion here? Shall we say the author of "The great Gatsby", Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong when he wrote "have" in the original sentence?

rango · Answer

I agree with you; it has to be has.

cledgard · Answer

That this sentence has been taken from a novel does not make it correct; the speaker may be speaking informally. If in a novel a character says " I don't know nothing", the sentence is still incorrect.

"Family" is singular. A better choice would be "the members of my family have been... "

As for the argument that says that people is the subject, I do not see how.

cledgard · Answer

Did Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald say the sentence? or one of his characters did?

If one of the characters in a novel says "Ain't know nothin", is the sentence correct?

MikeHelios · Answer

Hi experts
i would like to get clarification on the subject here, and the correct verb to follow the subject as i am unable to understand from the discussions in the thread.
thanks

My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this

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