So I was wondering if both forms are correct
The thing I love is flowers
and
The thing I love are flowers
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Mari-Lou A
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lara
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This question may already have an answer here: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/17766/singular-is-are-plural AND HERE http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/190191/her-whole-family-is-are-biologists – Centaurus Dec 14 '14 at 15:17
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Try 'the things I love are flowers'. – WS2 Dec 14 '14 at 15:20
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1Either "The thing I love is flowers" or "The things I love are flowers." – Hot Licks Dec 14 '14 at 15:32
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2In the grand scheme of things, not such a big mistake. The language is wrong (as others will surely describe), but it's a positive thought. I don't say this flippantly: it's good to learn a language's detailed grammar, but don't get hung up on it at the expense of your willingness and ability to communicate. – Dan Dec 14 '14 at 21:48
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The further flowers is from singular thing and closer to other plural nouns, the more 'okay' it is to say are, as in:
The thing I most love to receive, especially in summer, but also on all holidays or school dances, are flowers.
Notice the nouns closest to flowers are also plural, dances and holidays.
This is called proximity concord (that is a link to the briefest of explanations), but you can google that phrase and get many other explanations. Note that this mainly goes for spoken English, and that in written English, standard grammar ('grammatical concord') is usually expected.
pazzo
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Proximity concord applies where there is a potential conflict / openness to interpretation. Here, 'grammatical' agreement alone is acceptable. Is. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 14 '14 at 21:29
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I thought it was obvious who was downvoting. I never enjoy doing it – I'd rather have decent answers. A source implying that 'one of your friends are here' is acceptable is to be avoided. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 14 '14 at 21:33
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@Edwin Ashworth Not everyone agrees with your strict definition. And I won't carry on a discussion in comments, so that is my only response to your prescriptivist definition. – pazzo Dec 14 '14 at 22:01
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I'm not afraid to. Your reference relates to the English of 'Jamaican newspapers', as cited by Quirk et al, who are stated to consider sentences such as No one except his own supporters agree with him 'not fully acceptable'. They go on to say '[T]he principle of proximity comes into play mainly in unplanned discourse ... in writing it will be corrected to grammatical concord if it is noticed'.... – Edwin Ashworth Dec 14 '14 at 22:55
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The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar states: '[P]roximity agreement ... may be marginally acceptable when it supports notional concord, but is generally considered ungrammatical.' – Edwin Ashworth Dec 14 '14 at 23:00
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I'd say that this is too prescriptivist a stance, and consider the following from {http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/proximityagreement.htm} (The American Heritage Book of English Usage. Houghton Mifflin, 1996) a sensible balance: "Sometimes syntax itself makes it impossible to follow the agreement rule. In a sentence like Either John or his brothers are bringing the dessert, the verb can't agree with both parts of the subject. Some people believe that the verb should agree with the closer of the two subjects. This is called agreement by proximity." – Edwin Ashworth Dec 14 '14 at 23:03
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Both forms are incorrect. It should be The thing I love is flower (if general) or The thing I love is the flower (if specific).
Or, The things I love are flowers.
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1Welcome to EL&U. In my opinion, "the thing I love is flowers" is greatly preferable to "the thing I love is flower". We don't use singular no-article nouns in that way, and disagreement in number between the subject and complement of the verb to be should probably be avoided where possible, but isn't strictly incorrect. – Peter Shor Dec 14 '14 at 16:37
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3The thing I like is flower is so unidiomatic that it is likely to be taken as The thing I like is flour. – Tim Lymington Dec 14 '14 at 17:56
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