SC Guide8,3rd ed pg49: Subject-Verb Agreement Strategy

[ooisuankim]

Referring to the subject-verb agreement strategy chapter, I would like to confirm that the following sentences are correctly constructed:

(1) The pair of birds was united.

(2) One of the applies is rotten.

(3) Page 49 also states that if many individual parts of the totality is indicated, then a plural verb is used. If the totality itself is indicated, then a singular verb form is used. How does this reconcile with the 12th edition of the Official Guide at page 651, wherein the correct sentence at the bottom states "The masses have spoken". Does it mean that "the masses" is used to indicate the many individual parts of the totality?

Thank you.

[sanyalpritish]

All I can answer is in this is THE MASSES is PLURAL simple use HAVE,what you want to mention is THE MASS is singular use HAS, the case you are talking about is though mass is many people together then how can we use HAS for THE MASS, but when MASS is used as plural MASSES you need to use a plural verb.

In you sentence 1. I think it is wrong wat was united birds or pair you should ask you self, i understand it was birds that got united so use WERE, you may wanna check this again with some one.

[esledge]

I like sanyalpritish's contrast between mass/masses. When in doubt, ask yourself "what would it take to make this noun singular (or plural)?" Your answer will often involve removal or addition of an "s," but the real purpose is divining the GMAT writers' intent for the word.

Also, I think you can view "the masses" as equivalent to "the people." Since "the people have spoken" is correct, so is "the masses have spoken."


Finally, the following are correct:
The pair of birds was reunited.
The two birds were reunited.
(what's the noun? "of birds" as a modifer doesn't change the fact that "pair" is singular.)

One of the apples is rotten.
(Again, "of the apples" is just a modifier. The noun is "one," which is singular.)