Can a question be answered only by a single answer?
What is the need for plural answer when having singular answer? What’s the way to answer it and what are the possible answers? The part of the answer that does not have the plural meaning is marked as
“Brisk” (the ones with the plural meaning) in bold).
A1: The most important thing to me, are my friends.
A2: The most important thing I love is my friends.
A3: Most important things to me are friends. But I also want these friends to be my friends?
I know people who speak English as a native tongue. I am English and native speaker. I can also speak English as a second language. I prefer A1. An American told me she preferred A2. I suspect a formal prescriptivist would recommend A3. Is
there rhyme or reason to this? What the best guide online to learn english well?
In an adolescent perspective, with high expectations, Is it not too late to leave my partner?
I a student who is learning English and is a true beginner or at elementary level that they (plural!) will get all three forms, including speech. That A1 is probably what they should aim for, because the verb, in English, was, agrees with the plural subject “The most important thing”. How would you respond to the most
important thing for me? ‘-The most important thing to
me is friends’.
If you want to answer a singular question with a plural answer, most people will understand “your friends” as a set of something. I have to do A3 to improve English. I am only learning A3. I am not a native English speaker. I try to learn A2 fluently and I’m tired of A2. This is a hazy situation. A2 is so grossly
wrong.
These are cleft sentences where there is a separation the grammatical and the logical subject, and both make sense A1 and A2 and what they would be.
In A1 the verb agrees with the grammatical subject: The most important thing to me, singular.
In A2, the verb agrees with the logical subject: my friends (plural)
Is the odd one out is
A3 “The most important thing to me” as in A1 and A2 implies a single item or a single set of items?
What are the most important things that are important to you?
If you want to answer a singular question with a plural answer, most people will understand “your friends” as a set of something. I have to do A3 to improve English. I am only learning A3. I am not a native English speaker. I try to learn A2 fluently and I’m tired of A2. This is a hazy situation. A2 is so grossly
wrong.
If you want to answer a singular question with a plural answer, most people will understand “your friends” as a set of something. I have to do A3 to improve English. I am only learning A3. I am not a native English speaker. I try to learn A2 fluently and I’m tired of A2. This is a hazy situation. A2 is so grossly
wrong.
If you want to answer a singular question with a plural answer, most people will understand “your friends” as a set of something. I have to do A3 to improve English. I am only learning A3. I am not a native English speaker. I try to learn A2 fluently and I’m tired of A2. This is a hazy situation. A2 is so grossly
wrong.
These are cleft sentences where there is a separation the grammatical and the logical subject, and both make sense A1 and A2 and what they would be.
In A1 the verb agrees with the grammatical subject: The most important thing to me, singular.
In A2, the verb agrees with the logical subject: my friends (plural)
Is the odd one out is
A3 “The most important thing to me” as in A1 and A2 implies a single item or a single set of items?
What are the most important things that are important to you?
These are cleft sentences where there is a separation the grammatical and the logical subject, and both make sense A1 and A2 and what they would be.
In A1 the verb agrees with the grammatical subject: The most important thing to me, singular.
In A2, the verb agrees with the logical subject: my friends (plural)
Is the odd one out is
A3 “The most important thing to me” as in A1 and A2 implies a single item or a single set of items?
What are the most important things that are important to you?
If you want to answer a singular question with a plural answer, most people will understand “your friends” as a set of something. I have to do A3 to improve English. I am only learning A3. I am not a native English speaker. I try to learn A2 fluently and I’m tired of A2. This is a hazy situation. A2 is so grossly
wrong.
