What is / what are followed by adjective, be, and list

Question

Which one of these do you think is correct?

What is interesting to note is that GMAT scores can be cancelled, that cancelled GMAT scores do not show up on official GMAT reports, and that cancelled GMAT scores can be reinstated.

or

What are interesting to note are that GMAT scores can be cancelled, that cancelled GMAT scores do not show up on official GMAT reports, and that cancelled GMAT scores can be reinstated.

?

babuvgmat · Answer

first one is correct because phrases or clauses that act as a subject are always singular. What/That or Verb (Should be singular )

HiLine · Answer

Thanks for your reaponse!

But is it grammatically correct to say something is 1, 2, and 3? Isn't it similar to saying there is a man, a cat, and a dog in the house?

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babuvgmat · Answer

Yes it is.

Atleast as per GMAT . the last item in a list has to be ended preceded by a comma & and i.e, ",and"

for ex:- if you have 2 options in lets 1) A,B, and C 2) A, B and C .. Gmat prefers A as correct answer.

You can verify multiple questions from OG which test this rule. ( you can check in parallelism Concept )

HiLine · Answer

To confirm, is "a man, a dog, and a cat" considered singular or plural?

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sayantanc2k · Answer

If we consider that "what" is used to replace "things that", then we can probably reach a conclusion:

Correct:  Things that  are interesting to note are that GMAT scores can be cancelled, that cancelled GMAT scores do not show up on official GMAT reports, and that cancelled GMAT scores can be reinstated.... correct.
 
( The first verb ARE is the verb of the relative clause that starts with "that"; "that" refers to "things" and hence the first verb (within the clause) should be plural. The second verb ARE is the main verb of the sentence whose subject is directly "things", hence the second verb ARE also should be plural.)

A thing that is interesting to note is that GMAT scores can be cancelled, that cancelled GMAT scores do not show up on official GMAT reports, and that cancelled GMAT scores can be reinstated... wrong (A thing cannot be 3 things)

With this reasoning, I would say the following would be correct:
What are interesting to note are that GMAT scores can be cancelled, that cancelled GMAT scores do not show up on official GMAT reports, and that cancelled GMAT scores can be reinstated.

HiLine · Answer

Hmm contrasting opinions here ...

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What is / what are followed by adjective, be, and list

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