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655-705 Level|   Modifiers|   Subject Verb Agreement|               
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 14 Jan 2018, 05:17
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Please explain the concept of 'one' when to use 'are' and 'is' ?
Thanks :)
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 14 Jan 2018, 22:42
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Shivikaa
Please explain the concept of 'one' when to use 'are' and 'is' ?
Thanks :)
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Hi Shivikaa, it isn't strictly about the usage of one, but about the usage of that.

....large number of communities on the Great Lakes that is/are looking to...

Whether the verb should be is or are, depends on what that is modifying. Here, that is modifying communities (plural) and hence, are is the correct verb.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses usage of that, its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela Updated on: 25 Jan 2019, 23:35
Originally posted by altairahmad on 25 Jan 2019, 23:00.
Last edited by altairahmad on 25 Jan 2019, 23:35, edited 2 times in total.
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daagh VeritasKarishmaEducationAisle

And others,

Hi,

1. Isn't Cleveland 'one of' the communities ? Doesn't 'one of' make this singular ? In 'of communities' isn't 'communities' the object of preposition 'of' ?

2. Can 'communities' be object of a preposition and antecedent ? I thought we were supposed to ignore prepositions when looking for SV agreement.

Will appreciate help on this concept.

Thanks.

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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 25 Jan 2019, 23:56
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daagh

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply. The examples helped me put the puzzle together. I really appreciate it.

However, I am still being thrown off by my concept of 'of' being a preposition. Is it that the 'of' used is part of 'number of' rather than 'of communities'. ? Is this usage 'number of' idiomatic ?

Also, as per MGMAT, 'a number of' takes plural verb. How does that fit in here ?

Thanks

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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 26 Jan 2019, 05:09
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altair

When you have a relative pronoun after an object of a preposition, the relative pronoun assumes the number of the noun prior to that.
E.g. the selection board is about to announce the names of the winners who have won the Nobel Prize in 2018.

Here the relative pronoun 'who' antecedes 'the winners', which is the object of the preposition 'of' and turns the object into a subject, assuming the number and gender of the object.

Now let's look at the same example in a different vein.

The selection board is about to announce the name of the winner who has won the Nobel Prize in 2018 for Literature.

Because the object of the proposition is the singular 'winner', the relative pronoun who assumes the singularity of the object.

Takeaway: Please sail with the wind. You are playing GMAT's grammar. The sooner you trust that GMAT is always correct, the easier and earlier you would come of age. On the contrary, if you keep musing about just one doubtful aspect in the hall, then you would be the loser and not the GMAT. In addition, take home the fact that if something were controversial or debatable, GMAT would be the first to keep off that before anybody else would.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 27 Jan 2019, 07:29
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altairahmad

However, I am still being thrown off by my concept of 'of' being a preposition. Is it that the 'of' used is part of 'number of' rather than 'of communities'. ? Is this usage 'number of' idiomatic ?

Also, as per MGMAT, 'a number of' takes plural verb. How does that fit in here ?
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Hi altairahmad, daagh sir has already explained it.

Basically you might be slightly confused between subject-verb agreement and relative pronoun reference.

Following are two different concepts:

- From a subject-verb agreement perspective, words in prepositional phrases cannot be the subjects

- that modifies the nearest word or phrase that makes sense

Let's take an example:

One of every three businesses that fail/fails every year has/have a flawed business model.

The above sentence has two clauses:

1) One of every three businesses has/have a flawed business model.

Should it be has or have? Well, this is a subject-verb agreement issue. Here, businesses cannot be the subject because businesses is a part of the prepositional phrase of every three businesses. Hence one is the subject and so, the correct verb is has.

2) that fail/fails every year

Should it be fail or fails? Well, this is a relative pronoun reference issue. In other words, whether it is fail or fails, depends on what that is modifying. If that modifies something singular, then the correct verb is fails; on the other hand, if that modifies something plural, then the correct verb is fail.

So, what does that modify? As mentioned above, that modifies the nearest word or phrase that makes sense. In this case, that word is businesses. Since businesses is plural, the correct verb is have.

So, the final correct sentence is:

One of every three businesses that fail every year has a flawed business model.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses this concept of Subject-Verb agreement, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 04 Apr 2019, 23:14
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aditya8062
With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Cleveland is but one of a large number of
communities on the Great Lakes that is looking to its waterfront as a way to improve the quality of urban life and
attract new businesses.

A. is looking to its waterfront as a way to improve the quality of urban life and attract
B. is looking at its waterfront to improve the quality of urban life and attract
C. are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract
D. are looking to its waterfront as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attracting
E. are looking at their waterfronts as a way they can improve the quality of urban life and attract
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In Option C, does the phrase "looking to their" different from "looking at their"? If so, kindly tell me the difference.(Went with E)
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 05 Apr 2019, 10:18
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ravi

Looking at is wrong; we say "look at' only when we look at something physically; On the contrary, looking to means "hoping to"

Example: --- look at --- Expecting a positive reply, Theresa's mom looked at her daughter anxiously.

Look to -- After Theresa gave a positive reply, Theresa's mom looked to clear all her pending bills as soon as possible.

Please also look at Chris Lee's comments on this matter in this same thread.

Hope this helps.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 11 May 2019, 07:14
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The following example might help to understand why (A) and (B) can be eliminated straight away:

1) Punjab is only one of the states that has/have rich flora and fauna

2) Punjab is the only one of the states that has/have rich flora and fauna

The differentiating factor here is "the"

The examples above are of the form : "X of Y that " now "that" here can refer to either of X or Y, the presence of "The" decides what "that" refers to

Now applying the concept,

With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Cleveland is butoneof a large number of
communities on the Great Lakes that is looking to its waterfront as a way to improve the quality of urban life and
attract new businesses.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 14 May 2020, 09:46
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It seems like we are talking about "one of the communities" in great lakes and hence it should take a singular verb. Not sure why communities are being considered as the subject?
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 14 May 2020, 20:25
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GopalChandak
It seems like we are talking about "one of the communities" in great lakes and hence it should take a singular verb. Not sure why communities are being considered as the subject?
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This is admittedly a little bit confusing, but in this context, Cleveland isn't the ONLY community looking to its waterfront to improve the quality of urban life and attract. Rather, it is one of A LARGE NUMBER of communities, all of which ARE looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses.

Because we are talking about a large number of communities, a plural verb is needed.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 23 Sep 2020, 08:28
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daagh
First thing: looking at is wrong; we say look at only when we look at something physically; On the contrary, looking to means hoping to. Second, the subject is definitely the plural communities; hence the verb should be ‘are’ and not ‘is’.

(A) is looking to its waterfront as a way to improve the quality of urban life and attract -- wrong as per the second point
(B) is looking at its waterfront to improve the quality of urban life and attract – wrong as per the first point
(C) are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract—correct choice
(D) are looking to its waterfront as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attracting – are looking to its--- pronoun agreement error.
(E) are looking at their waterfronts as a way they can improve the quality of urban life and attract – Wrong as per point 1.
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could someone help me out by explaining why the plural communities is the subject of the sentence and not Cleveland . Thanks .
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 23 Sep 2020, 09:25
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SarthakHaruray
could someone help me out by explaining why the plural communities is the subject of the sentence and not Cleveland .
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Hi Sarthak, this is a very commonly used pattern in GMAT (barring some exceptions), something that you must develop comfort for.

The way to interpret this construct is:

i) There are many communities that are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract

ii) Cleveland is but one of those communities

Similarly, another correct sentence:

Peter is one of the people who believe in reincarnation.

Again, the way to interpret this construct is:

i) There are many people who believe in reincarnation.

ii) Peter is one of those people


p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses "one of" the mysteries, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 23 Sep 2020, 09:38
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SarthakHaruray
could someone help me out by explaining why the plural communities is the subject of the sentence and not Cleveland .
Hi Sarthak, this is a very commonly used pattern in GMAT, something that you must develop comfort for.

The way to interpret this construct is:

i) There are many communities that are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract

ii) Cleveland is but one of those communities

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses "one of" the mysteries, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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Thanks I usually dont sweat over identifying a subject but this kinda caught me off guard. I usually locate the subject through asking ' who is doing the action ' , ' who is being talked about etc etc. A second approach that i use is i eliminate as many prepositional phrases as i can, this usually leads me to the correct answer 9/10 times.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 23 Sep 2020, 09:50
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SarthakHaruray
Thanks I usually dont sweat over identifying a subject but this kinda caught me off guard. I usually locate the subject through asking ' who is doing the action ' , ' who is being talked about etc etc. A second approach that i use is i eliminate as many prepositional phrases as i can, this usually leads me to the correct answer 9/10 times.
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Correct and this construct should not be seen as a violation of this rule!

Who is/are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life?

Answer: Many communities are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life.

As for prepositional phrase, the rule is:

Words in a prepositional phrase cannot be the subject in the clause that prepositional phrase is a part of.

The two clauses in this sentence are:

i) With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Cleveland is but one of a large number of communities on the Great Lakes

ii) that are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses

As discussed, our book discusses this concept in detail.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 23 Sep 2020, 23:49
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What about the usage of 'that' in the question?

Is not it modifying 'Great Lakes' as per the rules?

Bit confused. Olease show some lights.

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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 24 Sep 2020, 00:19
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tndvekas760
What about the usage of 'that' in the question?

Is not it modifying 'Great Lakes' as per the rules?

Bit confused. Olease show some lights.
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Hi tndvekas760, if we read the sentence carefully, it should be evident that Great Lakes is not looking to its waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract.

Hence that is not modifying Great Lakes here.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses modifier issues of "that", their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 25 Mar 2021, 05:15
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In option C there is 'and'. so it requires parallelism right. the word(verb) after and is attract and the verb before it is 'to improve'. clearly they are not parallel right?
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 25 Mar 2021, 09:28
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BazingaGMAT
In option C there is 'and'. so it requires parallelism right. the word(verb) after and is attract and the verb before it is 'to improve'. clearly they are not parallel right?
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Hello, BazingaGMAT. What is wrong with parallel infinitives? Sure, the second item omits to, but this sort of abbreviation occurs frequently in the language and on the GMAT™. Is the following sentence incomprehensible because it lacks a second to?

I like to ride my bike and run down the street.

The sentence is fine as written. When parallel entities are shorter, they often omit the word at the head of the first item—e.g., to and that are more common—because that word is carried over as an understood element. I would like to tell you that there is a word cutoff between what constitutes a short item and a long one, but that is not how the language works. You have to use your best judgment in the given context of the sentence. If, for instance, I were to add to my sentence above in a certain manner, I would drop in a second to:

I like to ride my bike, a $20K carbon Pinarello that is better engineered than an automobile, and to run down the street in my Vaporflys.

(Note: I do not own either of these items, so I might not be worth robbing.) I would suggest not following grammar so closely that you might be missing out on points of meaning. If you are unsure of something, just put that consideration on hold and look for easier comparisons among answer choices. And if you make a mistake based on a misapplication of a so-called rule, then you will just have to adjust your understanding of that grammatical convention.

I hope that helps. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela 01 Jun 2021, 01:09
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is it not necessary to use second "to" before "attract" in terms of parallelism?

to improve and to attract?
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