Grammar Agreement Questions Medium
The rule for agreement with infinitive phrases is that the subject of the main clause should agree in number with the verb in the main clause, regardless of the number of the subject in the infinitive phrase. In other words, the verb in the main clause should be singular if the subject is singular, and plural if the subject is plural, regardless of whether the subject in the infinitive phrase is singular or plural. For example:
- She wants to eat apples. (singular subject in the main clause, singular verb)
- They want to eat apples. (plural subject in the main clause, plural verb)
However, there are some exceptions to this rule. When the subject in the infinitive phrase is a pronoun, it must agree in number with the verb in the infinitive phrase. For example:
- She wants me to eat apples. (singular subject in the infinitive phrase, singular verb)
- They want us to eat apples. (plural subject in the infinitive phrase, plural verb)
In summary, the rule for agreement with infinitive phrases is that the subject of the main clause determines the number of the verb in the main clause, while the subject in the infinitive phrase determines the number of the verb in the infinitive phrase, except when the subject in the infinitive phrase is a pronoun.