1

I came across this sentence online:

C extensions are a big part of the Ruby ecosystem.

Now, the word "C extensions" is the subject of the sentence and it's in plural form. The writer wants to say that the ability to write extensions in C (a popular programming language!) is a major part of programming practices inside Ruby (another programming language) environment. With this meaning in mind, is it correct to use the plural auxiliary 'are' to refer to a subject, although in plural form, functions as one unit or as a whole?!

If I were to write the same sentence, I would probably say:

C extensions is a big part of the Ruby ecosystem.

correct?

7kemZmani
  • 121
  • 1
    Plural is plural. Extensions are extensions. – RegDwigнt Oct 28 '14 at 10:52
  • Does that mean whenever I find a word in plural, it must come with 'are' no matter what? – 7kemZmani Oct 28 '14 at 10:54
  • @Abdul, if you wanted to use is, you could recast the sentence as "Writing C extensions is...". But as it is currently worded, Reg++ is right; you must use are. – Dan Bron Oct 28 '14 at 10:57
  • @Abdul: That is a somewhat wishy-washy way of putting it, and I sense trouble if you really apply that as a rule. There are many words in that sentence. So you can't just say that "whenever you find a word" it means anything at all. A verb has to agree with its subject. One extension is. Two extensions are. Simple as that. – RegDwigнt Oct 28 '14 at 10:58
  • even if I'm not referring to every single extension, and referring to all the extensions as a whole? – 7kemZmani Oct 28 '14 at 10:59
  • @RegDwigнt I'm still developing my skills as a learner of English and I think it's best (for people like me of course!) to tell what's correct and what's incorrect intuitively! and my feeling is that plural nouns when used semantically as one thing should go with 'is'! but I will trust you and any other expert who can tell me the right grammatical structure in this case and similar ones. Thanks! – 7kemZmani Oct 28 '14 at 11:11
  • @Abdul, you can do that, but you'd have to do it explicitly: "The library of C extensions to Ruby is quite vast": here, it is the library which is singular. You could also use collection or set or universe or whatever, but the point is, to use is, you're going to have to construct a singular object. The original sentence, as it is written, requires are. – Dan Bron Oct 28 '14 at 11:12

1 Answers1

0

Writing are is correct. You use are because the world extensions is plural. If it wasn't (extension) you would have used is.

It doesn't matter if you are referring to every single extensions or to all of them together in this case.

You must use are, that's the rule :)

Marcello Silvestri
  • 141