Would you please teach me when I should use "is" and when I should use "are" after a "and"?
There's an question in my examination:
"Ma said that the tourists opened up a new world for him because everything they said and did ___ so different from what had been taught at school and by his parents.
A.is B.are C.was D.were"
( Ma is a Chinese guy. His full-name is Ma Yun, who founded Alibaba. )

I chose C, but it should be D.
I thought that both "everything they said" and "everything they did" are singular nouns ( because "everything" is a singular noun ), so we should use "is" or "was" but not "are" or "were". But it seems that I was wrong. Could you tell me what is the correct usage of "is" and "are" after "and"?Sorry, I made a big mistake. I chose D but my teacher said it should be C.

I just asked my teacher, he said:
"In 'everything they said and did', the subject is 'everything', so it is 'everything THAT they said and did', where 'everything' is singular. So 'everything they said and did' is singular."

My description seemed misleaded Jmat. "everything they said and did" means "everything THAT they said and did" but not what I said " 'everything they said' and 'everything they did' ". Please accept my sincere apology.

Regards,
Yan

Question

Would you please teach me when I should use "is" and when I should use "are" after a "and"?
There's an question in my examination:
"Ma said that the tourists opened up a new world for him because everything they said and did ___ so different from what had been taught at school and by his parents.
A.is B.are C.was D.were"
( Ma is a Chinese guy. His full-name is Ma Yun, who founded Alibaba. )

I chose C, but it should be D.
I thought that both "everything they said" and "everything they did" are singular nouns ( because "everything" is a singular noun ), so we should use "is" or "was" but not "are" or "were".  But it seems that I was wrong. Could you tell me what is the correct usage of "is" and "are" after "and"?Sorry, I made a big mistake. I chose D but my teacher said it should be C.

I just asked my teacher, he said:
"In 'everything they said and did', the subject is 'everything', so it is 'everything THAT they said and did', where 'everything' is singular. So 'everything they said and did' is singular."

My description seemed misleaded Jmat. "everything they said and did" means "everything THAT they said and did" but not what I said " 'everything they said' and 'everything they did' ". Please accept my sincere apology.

Regards,
Yan

Answer

I can't explain it because I would have chosen "was" for the sentence, too. Who told you that it was wrong? "Everything" is singular and you are speaking in the past so it should be "was." If this is your teacher telling you that this is wrong, you need to challenge him/her.

Answer

"I thought that both "everything they said" and "everything they did" are singular nouns" - They are, but what they said and what they did are two things, so D is correct. When you have more than when thing, you need to treat them (not 'it') as a plural object, even if it's a group of singular objects.
E.g.
"A cat and a dog were walking down the street".

Answer

“The only thing that he thought about, talked about, and read about was pizza.”

= The only thing (conforming to such and such criteria) was pizza.

“Thing” is singular — always, no exceptions. If it were plural, we would write “things.” “Everything” is singular, if it were plural, we would write “all things.” The relative clause just serves as an adjective to qualify the subject of the main clause. We can qualify it as many ways as we want, but it’s still singular. Otherwise, I suppose one might as well claim that “a flag they colored red white and blue” is really three flags.

Answers · 6

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