This would make a great SAT question. I disagree with Mr. Sechrest.
My first choice for subject would be the word "There". In this example: "Tom has been a number of things, but a banker isn't one of them." the subject is clearly "Tom". Why would it be different if the word "There" is substituted for the name "Tom"? If I had to retreat, I would fall back to "number" as Bob suggests. Regardless, "things" is not the subject. It is a component of the prepositional phrase "of things" which modifies "number". - rob On Thu, Feb 16, 2006 at 03:44:03PM -0800, John Sechrest wrote: > > You are correct. And you are wrong. > > First: You are correct that the verb should match the number of the subject. > > Second: Most people interpret the subject to be "things" not "Number of" > > So if things is plural then have is the answer. > > > _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
