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I just heard someone say "The noisiest thing outside is the birds". I understand the use of "is" being preceded by the singular "thing". But, the plural "birds" followed by "is", why is this correct? What is generally the rule here?

Justin
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Ray
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    Not that the spoken has the strictness of the written word, but you could have the thing is or the thing are. I'd go with is. – Yosef Baskin Apr 11 '22 at 03:54
  • @Yosef: the thing are is ungrammatical. Did you mean the things are? – Peter Shor Apr 11 '22 at 11:29
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    Does this answer your question? Agreement in "[Singular Noun] Is/Are [Plural Noun]"? // In [NP₁] is/are [NP₂], the choice of verb form is always governed by NP₁ (the first noun phrase), whether it is considered the subject or the complement in a case of copular inversion. Easy so far. But NP₁ may look plural but be notionally singular ('Bacon and eggs is my favourite meal.') – Edwin Ashworth Apr 11 '22 at 11:52
  • @PeterShor "I'd go with is" is my way of saying there's no choice to make. – Yosef Baskin Apr 11 '22 at 13:31
  • Then I'll post a comment: the only grammatical choices are the noisiest thing is or the noisiest things are. Since there's more than one thing, things is a little bit better. – Peter Shor Apr 11 '22 at 13:32
  • Mismatches of number with specifying"be" where the subject is singular and the predicative plural are quite common. But with the ascriptive use of "be", mismatches most often have a plural subject in construction with a singular predicative, as in [_Our neighbours] are [a nuisance_]; [_The people who live there] are [a minority cult group_]. – BillJ Apr 11 '22 at 14:53

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