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This is the sentence: Out of these two what is the correct grammatical order to express the sentence.

1.) Watching cartoons, movies, dramas develop the human brain

2.) Watching cartoons, movies, dramas develops the human brain

What is it? Develop or Develops?

BillJ
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jananath banuka
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  • Use citations in question, if you please. Look for the v. usage – lbf Mar 31 '18 at 16:09
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    The subject of the sentence is "Watching." Watching takes a singular verb. Develops is the singular verb. You should use the article "the" before human brain. – Zan700 Mar 31 '18 at 16:14
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    @Zan700 The subject is 'Watching cartoons, movies, [and] dramas', but you're correct about 'watching ...' needing a singular verb-form. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 31 '18 at 16:43
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    The subject is non-finite clause, and clause subjects take singular agreement. So the singular "develops" is correct. – BillJ Mar 31 '18 at 16:56

2 Answers2

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"Watching cartoons, movies, and dramas develops the human brain." Would be the correctly structured sentence. "Watching" is the subject of the sentence, so the verb is singular: "develops".

A series such as "cartoons, movies, dramas" normally has "and" before the last item in the list. The comma after "movies" is optional, depending on location (UK, USA, etc.), style book (if any) used, and personal preference. (Whether to place a comma there is actually the subject of huge debates!)

But you could also say: "Cartoons, movies, and dramas develop the human brain." Here the phrase "Cartoons, movies, and dramas" is the subject, so the verb is plural; "develop".

Rich
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The subject in your sentence is - watching, so the verb takes the singular form because in general, a verb agrees with a subject in a sentence, not with a noun or pronoun. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/599/01/

Beqa
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  • Actually, the subject is the whole clause "watching cartoons, movies, and dramas". – BillJ Mar 31 '18 at 18:29
  • The simple subject is watching, and no matter what you put after watching, watching will remain the singular simple subject and require a singular verb. – Zan700 Apr 01 '18 at 01:01
  • It is important to say that the subject is a clause, since that is the reason why singular agreement is required here, not just because the head is a verb. Note that finite clauses also require singular agreement, cf. "That he was / they were acquitted disturbs her", where singular agreement is required irrespective of the 'head' which may be singular “was acquitted” or plural “were acquitted”. – BillJ Apr 01 '18 at 07:42