8. If this interests you or your father. (Not 'If you or your father is interested in this '.)

9. My brother or sister will lend a horse. (Not 'their horse', which would be incorrect; 'his horse' or 'her horse' would be misleading. 'His or her' is usually better avoided; similarly, 'his' in such sentences as 'Neither my brother nor my sister knew his own mind'; say 'My brother and sister did not know their own mind' or 'Neither of them knew his own mind'.)

203. Verb separated from subject. When a noun or a pronoun stands between a subject and its verb, the verb is often made to agree (erroneously) with the nearer word :

1. Neither of the boys was (not 'were') to blame. 2. Every one of them deserves (not 'deserve ') credit. 3. Two dollars' worth of nuts is (not 'are') sufficient. 4. The new series of experiments was (not 'were ') begun. 5. A court of fifty-six judges was (not 'were ') appointed. 6. The amount of the day's sales is (not 'are') not large. 7. A large supply of provisions was (not' were ') taken on board. 8. A company of soldiers was posted at the entrance. (See § 197.)

204. Verb with relative pronoun. Since a relative pronoun has the same form for both singular and plural (§ 83), its number is determined by its antecedent; a verb agreeing with a relative pronoun is often put in the wrong number by being made to agree with the wrong antecedent:

1. He is one of the best men that have (not 'has') ever lived. (The antecedent is men, not 'one'.)

2. This is the only one of my children that likes (not 'like') to read. (The antecedent is one, not 'children'.)

3. This is the worst mistake of all that were (not 'was') made.

205. Verb with athletics, etc. The following are examples of the uses of the forms athletics, contents, and similar subjects:

1. Athletics (= athletic training) has helped him greatly. The athletics (= sports) of the school are excellent. 2. The contents of the bottle (book, house, etc.) were known. 3. The enemy were repulsed. (Now regularly plural, unless personified as a force: 'They strike at the enemy in his weakest spot'; § 22.)

4. The ethics of dining is a neglected branch of morals. (Now usually singular.)

5. The Links themselves for a walk are now most enjoyable. (Regularly and properly plural.)

6. Niagara Falls (the falls) are in North America.

Niagara Falls (the city) is a manufacturing center.
7. Where are his headquarters? (Now regularly plural.)
8. Mathematics (physics, etc., § 32) is my hardest study.
9. Every means was tried.

Other means were tried. His means (= wealth) were large. 10. Measles has broken out in school.

11. The news was good. (Now regularly singular.) 12. What's the odds (= difference) to you? (Colloquial; § 380.)

The odds (= the chances) are a hundred to one against you. 13. The oat is a hardy cereal plant. The oats are ripe. 14. We took every pains. No pains were spared. (A singular verb with pains is now rare. The usual expression is take pains.) 15. What percentage (or proportion) of them are foreigners? A large percentage of them are foreigners. Fifty per cent of them are foreigners. (Do not say 'what per cent' for what percentage; what is an interrogative adjective, modifying the noun percentage; per cent is not a noun, but an adjective phrase, and must modify a noun; fifty per cent is correct, because fifty is a cardinal number used as a noun; fifty per cent means fifty in a hundred. See per cent, § 417.)

What percentage (not 'per cent') of it is wasted? A very small percentage of it is wasted. Three per cent of it is wasted. 16. Politics (collectively) is a science and an art.

Oh, what are all your politics (= political affairs)? 17. The Stars and Stripes was floating above us. 18. Statistics is a most important science.

There are as yet no statistics of the wasted material.

19. A summons was issued; summonses were issued.

20. Their tactics by sea was a sort of land engagement on deck (tactics as an art). New tactics were employed in this battle (tactics as put in practice).

21. Further tidings were anxiously awaited.

22. The old landmarks of politics within the United States themselves seemed, meanwhile, submerged. (Here the individual states are meant.)

The United States hereby disclaims, etc. (Here the states are thought of as a unit.)

23. His wages were neither high nor low.

24. His whereabouts is unknown.

206. Verb with number. The word number takes a singular

or a plural verb according to the sense:

1. A number of accidents ( = some accidents) occur now.

2. A large number of accidents (= many accidents) occur now. 3. The number(= the total) of accidents is not large.

4. The largest number(= the maximum) of accidents occurring (or that occur) in the summer is inconsiderable.

5. The largest number of accidents (= most accidents) occur (not 'occurs') in the summer.

207. Verb with all, half, etc. The pronoun all (§§ 119, 143) and the nouns half (§ 147), two thirds (and similarly all fractions, § 199), part, remainder, and rest are singular or plural according to the sense (for none, see § 102; for pair, § 417):

1. Half of this is blue; half of these are blue.

2. Two thirds of the wheat was bad. Two thirds of them were lost.

3. The rest of the day was fair; the rest of us were tired. (Exercise XXIII, § 568.)

208. Voice. The change of form in verbs which indicates whether the subject acts or is acted on is called voice. There are two voices, the active and the passive. The active voice

represents the subject as acting; the passive voice represents the subject as being acted on. As a rule, the active voice is more effective, and hence more desirable, than the passive; do not needlessly mix the two voices (§ 355, B, 2) :

1. The blacksmith strikes the anvil. (Active.)

2. The anvil is struck by the blacksmith. (Passive.)

3. We heard the tinkling of bells. (Rather than 'The tinkling of bells was heard'.)

4. At last he saw a light, and heard voices. (Not 'and voices were heard'.)

NOTE. The passive voice is useful in avoiding the pronoun I and other personal subjects. For example, see the last paragraph of § 54; the passive voice fixes the attention on the faults rather than on the author of them.

209. Passive voice. The passive voice of a verb is formed by the addition of its past participle to the desired form of the verb be (§§ 629-634, 647-652):

PRESENT INDICATIVE

1. I am advised.

2. Thou art advised.

3. He is advised.

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE
If I be advised.

If thou be advised.
If he be advised.

The passive voice of progressive verb phrases (§ 175) is used in the present and the past tense; these tenses are formed by the addition of being and the past participle (§ 170) to the desired forms of the verb be:

The water is being heated; the town was being taken.

210. Adverb or preposition with verb. Some adverbs and prepositions are alike in form, but they may be distinguished by their use:

1. The horse soon got up. (Adverb.)

2. They got up an entertainment. (Adverb.)

3. We finally got up the hill. (Preposition.)

211. Preposition and voice. An intransitive verb is generally used in the active voice only; but when it is followed by a preposition, it may frequently be used in the passive voice. The object of the preposition becomes the subject of the verb, and the preposition becomes an adverb:

1. We sent for him; he was sent for.

2. She laughed at me; I was laughed at.

NOTE. In such expressions as 'I sent the boy for the doctor', 'The boy was sent for the doctor', the word for is clearly a preposition; in 'I sent for the doctor', 'The doctor was sent for', the word for is so closely attached to the verb as to form a transitive compound verb, with doctor for its object or subject. But oftentimes a distinction between the prepositional and the adverbial use is difficult to make.

Certain expressions containing transitive verbs may also be used in the passive voice:

1. She took good care of you; you were well taken care of. 2. They made fun of him; he was made fun of. 3. The summer house was now seldom made use of.

212. Indirect object. The indirect object denotes the person or thing to whom or to which something is given or refused; it is in the objective case (§ 40; dative, §§ 604, 606):

1. I gave him (= to him) my dog. (Him is the indirect object; dog is the direct object.)

2. I promised my dog (= to my dog) a good supper.

213. Indirect and retained object. When the active voice is changed to the passive, either the direct or the indirect object may be made the subject. If the direct object is made the subject, the indirect object remains as an indirect object; if the indirect object is made the subject, the direct object is retained in the objective case (accusative, §§ 604, 606) and is called the retained object: