The sentence is clearly ungrammatical, but it is not uncommon to violate grammar rules in this way under certain circumstances, and it is to be presumed that the writer thought of such circumstances, though he may not have done so. If he thought of a number of individual failures in the plural sense, and wrote “is” to go with the clearly plural sense of the noun, he did not express his thought correctly. But he may have thought of “failures” simply as one subject of talk, and this would at least so far justify the singular verb as to leave its correctness open to discussion. We may say, “‘Failures’ is the subject of his lecture,” and reasonably expect that no one will criticise the expression. Here are three such sentences, noted within a half-hour’s reading while having our correspondent’s question in mind: “The revived Olympic games is the subject of two articles.” “A thousand shares of short interest is one result of the raid.” “A few doses is sufficient.” The late Prof. William Dwight Whitney, author of “Essentials of English Grammar,” decided, while editing the Century Dictionary, that “two and two is four” is better than “two and two are four,” because the full sense is “the sum of two and two,” or something similarly unifying the idea of “two and two.” The sentence above questioned would be better if written, “Failure is the current talk,” but “now days” instead of nowadays is much more criticisable than the verb.
Which of the following sentences are correct, and by what rule? “Please state whether one or six bottles is desired.” “Please state whether one or six bottles are desired.”
In this question as written there is an erroneous use of the plural that is not at all questionable. “Which ... is correct” should have been written. Only one is contemplated, as a choice, by “which,” therefore the verb should be singular. In the sentence inquired about are is the proper verb, because the plural subject immediately precedes it, and the singular verb agreeing with “one” is understood, not expressed. Logical fullness of expression would demand something like “whether one bottle is or six bottles are”; but that is plainly undesirable. The rule is that in such cases the verb should agree with its immediate subject. Objection to the plural verb in the other sentence does not conflict with this rule, because, the pronoun “which,” meaning “which sentence,” is the direct subject, notwithstanding the intervention of other words between it and the verb.
I inclose two clippings from papers, which I have numbered (1) and (2). Will you kindly inform me if these two sentences are grammatically correct as printed? If not, please explain why. (1) “He made many friends, but all were in moderate circumstances, and none wanted to know any other language than their own.” (2) “This thing is so simple and so clear in my own mind that I can not see how any one can think differently; but if anybody does, I would like to hear from them.”
The first sentence can not rightly be utterly condemned, although “none” is simply “no one,” and so is primarily singular. It is not uncommon to use the word with a plural pronoun or verb, as including more than one, and it is not wrong to do so. It would undoubtedly be right, however, to say “none wanted other than his own.” The second sentence is positively and unqualifiedly bad, notwithstanding the fact that the error is a very common one. “I would like to hear from him” would be right. In cases like both of these (supposing that one prefers the singular pronoun in the first) it is preferable to use the masculine singular, despite the inclusion of women among those meant by the other words, because it agrees in number, and while it means a man and not a woman, “man” is inclusive of women, though it is essentially a masculine word.
Will you kindly inform me whether the subjoined sentence is wrong? “The events in Field’s life—his birth at St. Louis in 1850; his education at Williams, Knox, Amherst, and Missouri State Universities; his connection with the St. Louis Journal, Kansas City Times, Denver Tribune, and Chicago News; and his rise in journalism—were sufficiently commented upon at the time of his unfortunate death a little over a year ago to require special mention now.” It is claimed by a literary friend that the word “not” should be inserted after “ago,” making the phrase read “not to require special mention now.” I maintain that the clause beginning with “to” is a clause of result. For substitute the word “enough” for “sufficiently”—which means the same—and see how it reads: “The events in F’s life ... were enough commented upon at the time of his ... death ... to require special mention now.”
The sentence is incomplete without “not” after “ago,” or a corresponding change, as “to require no special mention.” Its intention is that no mention is now required, and why not say so? Substitution of “enough” for “sufficiently” makes no difference, and I must confess that I do not know what “a clause of result” is, as I never heard of one before, at least with any meaning that is at all fitting for anything that can be intended here.