painted caves at Lascaux and Altamira

[RonPurewal]

Of course not. Harder alone cant be the subject.
for example "The better than any other parts of america is the area containing Nj,NY,pittsburg"

in the above sentence "the better" cant be subject right. That I understand.
But "The better than any other parts" is indeed the singular subject in the above sentence. Is not it?

Where did you get this sentence?

1/ It's not a proper English sentence.

2/ It doesn't make geographical sense, either (Pittsburgh is four hundred miles from NY/NJ).

[jingjiaol257]

hi -

this is really important:

if anything BEFORE the verb CAN BE the subject, then that thing will be the subject.

this advice mostly applies to sentences like this one: "A is/are B".
specifically:
in the sentence "noun1 is/are noun2", noun1 is the subject.
in the sentence "noun2 is/are noun1", noun2 is the subject.

for instance:
the hardest part of the test was the last three questions --> "hardest part" is the subject.
the last three questions were the hardest part of the test --> "last three questions" is the subject.

you only have a backward construction (verb before subject) if NOTHING in FRONT of the verb is eligible to be the subject.

on the table are two cell phones
--> "on the table " is a prep. phrase and therefore can't be the subject, so this is a backward construction. "two cell phones" is the subject.

harder than anything else on the test were the last three questions
--> here "harder than anything on the test" contains no eligible subjects, so this is backward construction; "the last three questions" is the subject.

hi ron
what are difficult to understand are A and B. is this sentence right?
Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

No, that would still be "what is difficult to understand".

You shouldn't see anything starting with "what are...", unless it's a question. GMAT SC sentences are never questions, so the whole thing is a non-issue. (I.e., you'll never actually face this kind of thing as a decision point between answer choices, so there is no reason to worry about it.)

[SatanillesR537]

1) But don't we say: what his father gave him are a few books. ?

no, you would still write "is", because the subject of the verb is still what his father gave him, not a few books.

similarly:
Performed last weekend were three plays. (correct)
*Performed last weekend was three plays. (incorrect)

Sophocles's Oedipus cycle is three plays. (correct)
*Sophocles's Oedipus cycle are three plays. (incorrect)

if you find the subject in each of these, they should all make sense pretty quickly.

by the way, the likelihood that the modern gmat will test this sort of thing is pretty close to nil.

Hi Ron!

Could I ask one more question?

What I want is your happiness.
What I want is a good job and a happy life.

these two sentences, are they both correct?

thanks a lot ~!

[RonPurewal]

Mechanically, both are fine.

The meaning of the first one is a bit unclear.
Literally, it means that "my happiness" is what you want-- i.e., you want to steal my sense of happiness so that you can feel it yourself. On the other hand, your intention is probably something along the lines of "I want you to be happy".

But it seems you're asking about mechanics. In that sense, both are fine.

[JaneC643]

No, that would still be "what is difficult to understand".

You shouldn't see anything starting with "what are...", unless it's a question. GMAT SC sentences are never questions, so the whole thing is a non-issue. (I.e., you'll never actually face this kind of thing as a decision point between answer choices, so there is no reason to worry about it.)

Hi， Ron
How about this sentence: " I want to find out what is called warm blood animals" ? Here, we still use "what is" rather than "what are"?
Thanks,
Jane

[RonPurewal]

No, that would still be "what is difficult to understand".

You shouldn't see anything starting with "what are...", unless it's a question. GMAT SC sentences are never questions, so the whole thing is a non-issue. (I.e., you'll never actually face this kind of thing as a decision point between answer choices, so there is no reason to worry about it.)

Hi， Ron
How about this sentence: " I want to find out what is called warm blood animals" ? Here, we still use "what is" rather than "what are"?
Thanks,
Jane

that's not a meaningful sentence.

if that sentence is rephrased in a way that makes sense--e.g., I want to know which animals are called 'warm-blooded'--then the problem disappears.

[JunjunZ928]

Hi, Ron. I do remember an example from your pubic class: What is interesting are cookies.

Can you please explain why can't we use "it" to subtituate "are". The sentence does not seem to have a valid reason to use backward structure. Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

Hi, Ron. I do remember an example from your pubic class: What is interesting are cookies.

Can you please explain why can't we use "it" to subtituate "are". The sentence does not seem to have a valid reason to use backward structure. Thanks.

please do not make up things that i didn't create, and then falsely attribute them to me. thank you.

first, that sentence is nonsense, and i don't make up examples that are nonsense.
second, "cookies" is not the kind of word i would personally use in an example.

i don't know where you got this, but, you DEFINITELY did not get this from me.

[ChloeHe]

1) But don't we say: what his father gave him are a few books. ?

no, you would still write "is", because the subject of the verb is still what his father gave him, not a few books.

similarly:
Performed last weekend were three plays. (correct)
*Performed last weekend was three plays. (incorrect)

Sophocles's Oedipus cycle is three plays. (correct)
*Sophocles's Oedipus cycle are three plays. (incorrect)

if you find the subject in each of these, they should all make sense pretty quickly.

by the way, the likelihood that the modern gmat will test this sort of thing is pretty close to nil.

Hi instructor, as you mentioned...
What his father gave him is a few books. (subject: what his father gave him)

I find another example below:
What concern scientists the most about global warming are the risks that the polar ice caps will melt, that the seas will grow too warm to sustain marine life, and that violent weather patterns may result.

For this one, the subject is "what concern scientists the most about global warming". Why should we use "are" instead of "is" this time? Is it because "what concern" implies a single verb？

Many thanks for your help!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Good find, Chloe. Interestingly, where did you find that example?

The singular / plural nature of some pronouns (such as what, some, either) depends somewhat on context. Here, because 'what' is clearly standing for multiple things, treating it as plural makes sense (try it as singular here and you'll see that the sentence could be confusing).

That said, we found this problem to be too confusing, and have changed it to remove this issue.

[ChloeHe]

Thank you Sage. Actually, I found this example on GmatClub. I'm not sure whether it is reliable.
If this example is correct, can we approach this kind of question by following the steps below?
1. Plural verb in a subordinate clause (what concern) - plural verb (what... are)
2. no implication in the subordinate clause - singular verb (what... is)

Thanks a lot!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Those steps look good to me. Our general advice is 'if in doubt, think singular'. Check out the chapter in the SC guide that deals with this (Subjects and Verb Tense: Extra).

Of course, on harder problems, GMAT loves to find exceptions to rules and convoluted situations. However, as in the example problem above (about cave paintings) there is a way to solve it logically rather than by memorized grammar rules. Note that the unchanging verb 'is' in the middle of the underlined portion gives a way to decide whether the subject is singular or plural.

[JbhB682]

Source : Myself
Harder than plastic (is/are) rocks


In this case, is "Are" or "is" preferred ?

I thought the noun "plastic" could be the subject of the sentence but my ear is telling me "are" is better

[esledge]

Source : Myself
Harder than plastic (is/are) rocks

In this case, is "Are" or "is" preferred ?

I thought the noun "plastic" could be the subject of the sentence but my ear is telling me "are" is better

This example is not quite the same as the original GMATPrep question at the top of this thread, which has a "(What is difficult to determine) is (a reason)" structure where a singular noun phrase (created by the "what is...") is equated via the verb is/are to a singular noun.

In your example, "rocks" are equated to an adjective, "harder than plastic," and the GMAT would typically do so in this order: "Rocks are harder than plastic." Because plural "rocks" are the only subject, "are" is the right verb. I think that would still be true if you flip the sentence back to the order you presented, but that unusual order would be cause for concern itself.