Alice Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 In this sentence should you use were or was for the bolded word? The worst part of all was that there were not enough lifeboats for everyone on board. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Were. Lifeboats is plural. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Agreed. There is just holding the place for the actual subject, lifeboats. Stick lifeboats before the verb and it will sound better. Lifeboats were not enough. Lifeboats was not enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Ok, that makes sense. I think I was thinking that “there†is a place holder for “the worst partâ€. I was thinking of it more as: The worst part was not enough lifeboats were on board. I think it’s an awkward sentence as written. It’s from one of our grammar workbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Ok, that makes sense. I think I was thinking that “there†is a place holder for “the worst partâ€. I was thinking of it more as: The worst part was not enough lifeboats were on board. I think it’s an awkward sentence as written. It’s from one of our grammar workbooks. It's more awkward when you remove "that." :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 It's more awkward when you remove "that." :-) Yes, you’re right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Ok, that makes sense. I think I was thinking that “there†is a place holder for “the worst partâ€. I was thinking of it more as: The worst part was not enough lifeboats were on board. I think it’s an awkward sentence as written. It’s from one of our grammar workbooks. No, in the original sentence, "the worst part" already has a 'was". The 'that' indicates a new clause, with a new subject and verb. In your second example, you still have 'were' as the subject in the second clause; the original 'was' stays where it was. The second verb has "lifeboats" as the subject in both examples. The worst part of all was that there were not enough lifeboats on board. The worst part was (that) not enough lifeboats were on board. I put a "that" in parentheses in your second example, as while it's sometimes left out in English, it can be put there without changing the meaning to show that you're beginning a second clause. The "of all" could also be left in its original position in the second example. All you've really done is flipped "lifeboats" to being more obviously the subject of the verb "were" in the second clause. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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