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  1. If the subject is expressed by the emphatic it 'the predicate is in the singular no matter what follows.

Foreigners say that it is only English girls who can thus be trusted to travel alone... (Ch. Bronte)

  1. If the subject is expressed by a noun in the plural which is the title of a book, or the name of a newspaper or magazine, the predicate is usually in the singular.

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club” was written

when Dickens was twenty-four years of age.

  1. If the subject is expressed by a noun in the plural denot­ing time, measure, or distance, thj^nredicate is in the singular when the noun represents the alfiSunT or mass as a whole.

Four hundred miles was a huge distance when a man was no long­er young and had no means. (Maltz)

Three dollars is the sum laid aside for all other purposes and pleasures. (Dreiser)

Twenty-one years is a longish time, lad, but memory is longer and deeper and stronger than time. (Farnol)

12. If the subject is expressed by a co1k£Tive noun denoting a group or collection of similar individuals taken as a whole (man­kind, humanity, etc.) the predicate-verb is in the singular.

He consoled himself with the idea that perhaps humanity was better than he thought. (Dreiser)

We 11, what is mankind, then, Mrs. Jenkins?” I asked her. “Man­kind is all of us,” Mrs. Jenkins said, “you and me and every­body you can think of all over the world. That is mankind.” (Llewellyn)

If the subject is expressed by a noun of multitude, i. e. a col­lective noun denoting the individuals of the group taken separate­ly (people — Jiio/iH, infantry, cavalry, gentry, clergy, police, cattle, poultry, jury, etc.) the predicate-verb is as a rule in the plural.

The weather was warm, and the people were sitting at their doors. (Dickens)

I belong to a church that is older and better than the English Church,” Mr. Holt said... “in our church the clergy do not marry." (Thackeray)

The police are all over the place. (Kennedy)

At the present time, too many commercial cattle are bred with no particular end in view. (Garner)

As experimental animals poultry have their excellent points. (.Hagedeorn)

With collective nouns (family, committee, "fcrew*, army, board, chorus, government, party, team, company, band, etc.) as subject the predicate is either in the singular or in the plural; this depends on what is uppermost in the mind, the idea of oneness or plurality.

...the branch committee was meeting in the room of a textile trade union. (Lindsay)

...I am glad to tell you, Doctor Manson ... that the committee have decided by a majority to ask you to remain. (Cronin)

The company was then complete, twenty-one in all. (Galsworthy) “One of them might have slipped into the hall, in the confusion, when the dinner company were going away,” says Mr. Frank­lin. (Collins)

The Board was again full .. . (GalsvnQrthyJ

The board were sitting in solemn conclave?TVSefiJSjCtumble

rushed into the room in great excitement... (Dickens)

Michael followed with the Upshires and Aubrey Green, whom h had encountered in the hall. The party was complete. (Oak worthy)

The meal over, the party were free to run and play in the meadows. (Ch. Bronte)

...the band was beginning to play a selection from the music of Grieg. (Hichens)

U^hen we came to the house we found that the band had arrived and were standing about in the hall. (Du Maurier)

§ 21. The predicate agrees in number with the subject expressed by a syntactic word-group, 1 consisting of two nouns connected by the conjunction and. Here we find agreement according to the meaning expressed in the word-group.