Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

I have yet another subject/verb agreement question. Is the usage of "are"
correct in the following sentence? The sentence was taken from the Internet, but it's from a published source.

Likewise, a nurse or doctor who uses medical jargon, or a heavy metal fan who uses rock music slang, are going to encounter incomprehension when communicating with people outside their professional circles.

Thanks for your comments on this one.

[edwardcatflap]

Same as before isn't it? Both are ok

[raewon]

Thanks for your reply. I'm not really sure because I can't seem to justify
"are" using grammar rules. The use of "are" sounds OK to my ear, but when I think about subject/verb agreement rules ....I feel it has to be "is".

[lifeinkorea]

The mistake seems to be with using either or not.

AM/ARE/IS going to VERB = future (I am going to go to Europe next week)

In this case we have "Likewise". Likewise, you are going to?

Doesn't make sense to me. "Likewise" is used for routines. Likewise, A does B, not A is going to do B.

So I would say:

"Likewise, a nurse or doctor who uses medical jargon, or a heavy metal fan who uses rock music slang, encounter incomprehension when communicating with people outside their professional circles."

It follows the same logic in using plural form "encounter" instead of "encounters". Perhaps, it's technically ok to use either so long as you keep the s for singular and drop it for plural. I prefer to omit the verb -ing part.

[raewon]

Thanks for your reply.

Let's drop the "Likewise,". If I understood you correctly, then the following could be OK?

A nurse or doctor who uses medical jargon, or a heavy metal fan who uses rock music slang, are going to encounter incomprehension when communicating with people outside their professional circles.

Are the "are" and "their" supported by grammar rules, or do they mandate "is" and "his"?

[blackjack]

[lifeinkorea]

Ok, but now you aren't comparing.

"Likewise" assumes you are comparing something with something else. Technically, it would be correct. However, I personally would drop the VERB -ing parts.

[alljokingaside]

[The Cosmic Hum]

[ontheway]

Correct sentence:

[kemek]

If you drop part of the sentence and bring the subject and verb together, it makes sense with "is."

"A nurse or doctor ... is going to encounter incomprehension."

"A nurse or doctor are" is obviously wrong then.

That's the way I would try to parse out a tricky sentence.

[murmanjake]

[toph]

Honestly, I believe IS would work in the sentence as well.

As you are using OR for your connector, it isn't a direct comparison. So if you compare the original with a new sentence that removes all filler words it will read as such:

Original:
Likewise, a nurse or doctor who uses medical jargon, or a heavy metal fan who uses rock music slang, are going to encounter incomprehension when communicating with people outside their professional circles.

This sentence becomes confusing from the start. Beginning with "likewise," it is hard to judge the rest of the sentence because the reader doesn't know what was "likewise-d".

New, edited sentence:
A doctor, or fan, IS going to encounter difficulty when communicating with people outside of their groups.

The tense, grammar, and plurality all remain the same in the edited sentence. The only thing that changes is the word "are" to "is."

Personally, I would change the idea of the sentence to a prediction and use "will." It seems more appropriate for the context of the sentence, but that's given that I don't know the rest of the story.

Anyway, hope that helps

[raewon]

Wow, thanks for all the replies.

I'm curious about two things though:

The Cosmic Hum has always been spot on, so I'll start there:

[toph]

Okay...well, now that I know the previous sentence, it just becomes easier to read.

But even then, "are" should be corrected to "is."

Or the entire sentence can be changed to read as a prediction and use "will" instead of "are" or "is."

So, "...will encounter incomprehension..."

Hope this helps.