Which noun should be used here?
Some of the grain ____________to be contaminated.

Which noun should be used here?<br/>
Some of the grain ____________to be contaminated.<br/>

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Asked by Coulter, Last updated: Nov 25, 2024

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3 Answers

F. Ray, Student, Kansas City

Answered Oct 16, 2018

This type of sentence can be confusing most of the times but it is important to remember the subject-verb agreement. Since the subject here is the word grain is in singular form, we must follow the rule of adding s to the verb.

So to complete the sentence correctly, it should be added with appears. If the sentence used the word grains for example, then the word appear must be used. The word some is not considered as a collective noun and even it usually connotes more than one, it is still not the subject in the sentence but the singular grain.

John Adney

Answered Nov 10, 2017

No, here grain is uncountable noun so it represents more than one grain, hence are seems better in use than is.

John Smith

Answered Apr 28, 2017

Appears

Ignore the prepositional phrase in the sentence and remember that the word some is an indefinite pronoun and can be singular or plural. You have to decide based on the word that it is referring to--grain.