-1

I am in a heated debate over whether to use "is" or "are" in the following sentence:

"When I look into her eyes all I see is/are bright lights beaming energy through our path on eternity together."

Please advise.

Edwin Ashworth
  • 83,272
Big Stackins
  • 1
  • There are already a couple of similar questions on the English language stack exchange. – Mousentrude Jun 16 '23 at 05:02
  • please see: https://grammarhow.com/is-all-singular-or-plural/
    the 'all' in your sentence is 'lights' (plural)     – wetcircuit Jun 16 '23 at 18:51
  • Thanks for the resource, but these are not direct enough answers to my complex question, and the involved parties want a definitive answer if one exists. –  Jun 19 '23 at 00:43
  • I believe this thread does answer your question, Big S: "When all you hear is fear and lies" Fowler's gives a definitive answer: ' ... all I see is bright lights'. (Cool Elf comes up with the killer example: 'All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth'.) – Edwin Ashworth Jun 21 '23 at 11:00
  • Thanks, Edwin. I would’ve liked a definitive (and upvoted) answer in this thread so I could share it with the debatees. – Big Stackins Jun 22 '23 at 00:22

2 Answers2

0

All I see are lights

The object that you are looking at is plural. If you said "all I see is light" then you would use the singular "is."

You might get confused by the subject being singular, but let me put it this way. Let's say that you wanted to say "all I see is/are light" and you make the direct object singular. You would say "all I see is light". "Are" doesn't sound right in that case. To show that the subject doesn't matter, now make the sentence "all they see is/are light." The subject is plural, but you still would use is. The only thing that matters is if the direct object is plural or not.

(By the way, the direct object is what the verb is directly acting upon. For example with your sentence, ask the question "what do you see?" You see light. The direct object is light.)

  • 1
    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. –  Jun 17 '23 at 18:24
-1

The verb needs to agree with the subject of the sentence.

Your subject is singular (I) so the correct verb is 'is'

The exception to this is when the subject is a collective noun -- such as a murder of crows. The murder is singular but refers to more than one crow so a sentence whose subject is a murder of crows would use 'are' and not 'is'

EDL
  • 144
  • 2
    The main sentence is "All is/are lights". "I" is only the subject of the subordinate clause "(that) I see" and has nothing to do with the verb in question. – Divizna Jun 16 '23 at 08:35
  • @Divizna, I think you've gotten that backwards. 'When I look into ...' is a subordinated clause. It starts with a conditional word and can't stand alone. The independent clause is 'All I see ... beaming energy.' And the subject of the independent clause is I. – EDL Jun 16 '23 at 17:54
  • It's possible for a compound sentence to have more than one subordinate clause. I insist that the part "(that) I see" is a subordinate clause and the verb paired with "I" in it is "see". – Divizna Jun 16 '23 at 18:10
  • 2
    I'm reasonably confident "I is..." is not the correct answer. – wetcircuit Jun 16 '23 at 18:43