verb usage for "That" as subordinating

[Guest]

In the sentence

Patchwork of green fields that surround....

What should be the verb, surround/surrounds?
Here subject is singular - Patchwork of green fields



Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great anthropologist and that makes his letters as a group the rival of the best novels of the time.

What should be the verb make/makes?

here subject is plural - powers of observation

[JonathanSchneider]

For the first, the question really is: what do we intend to describe, the patchwork as a whole, or the fields? This could go either way, but it would probably depend on the context and the meaning of the rest of the words involved. My guess is that that "patchwork" itself will be the thing that surrounds...

For the second, we want the plural form. The word "and" connects the two "that" clauses together, and each refers back to the powers of observation.

[shobuj40]

we know when we use THAT as a relative pronoun it refer back the immediate noun but here

instructor says the total phrase powers of observatin

can anyone explain ?

[JonathanSchneider]

Great question, shobuj40. Basically, the "rule" that the word "that" must modify what comes directly before it is, actually, a bit lenient. While in general it holds true, there is an exception: we can modify a noun before the immediately preceding noun when the immediately preceding noun is there only to modify the noun before that in a necessary way.

This probably sounds confusing, so let me provide an example.

Let's say we have the phrase: "a way of producing sounds." Now, let's say that we want to modify this whole phrase. We cannot simply say: "a way that...", because we need to know what this "way" is first: a way of producing sounds. Thus, the prepositional phrase "of producing sounds" needs to come in between the noun we wish to describe ("way") and the modifier ("that...").