In a message dated 12/1/2006 6:27:58 A.M. Central Standard Time, rfochtman
at YNC.NET writes:
>However, if the subject is "of tracks"...
>The of tracks are 1. Hmmmm. The "of" causes a problem.
The "of" does cause a problem, but I believe the real cause of the problem
is the fact that the noun most recently encountered ("tracks") before the verb
("is") is plural, and this confuses the mind into thinking that the subject
("number") must be plural. Consider this example: "Every one of the
billions of stars in all the billions of galaxies in all the billions of
universes
is composed of hydrogen." The subject of the sentence is "one", which is
singular, but there are many plural nouns between that subject and the
sentence's
verb "is", and all of these plural nouns refer to very large numbers of
things. When speaking or writing this sentence, by the time the verb is
encountered the average mind has long since forgotten what the subject was and
is
influenced more by all the plural nouns. But when reading it there is no
problem.
>And a prepositional phrase can NOT be the subject of a sentence.
Not true. E.g.: Of Mice and Men is a novel and a movie. This sentence's
subject is a prepositional phrase being used as a noun.
>Only a noun or a gerund.
This is true, but literally any word or part of speech can be the subject of
a sentence if used as a noun. E.g.: Are is the heading of the dictionary
entry for the word "are."
And I am elated to see that someone else still knows about gerunds.
Bill Fairchild
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