SKILL 21: MAKE VERBS AGREE AFTER EXPRESSIONS OF QUANTITY
A particular agreement problem occurs when the subject is an expression of quantity, such as “all, most, or some”, followed by the preposition “of”. In this situation, the subject (all, most, or some) can be singular or plural, depending on what follows the preposition “of”.
All (of the book) was interesting.
SINGULAR
All (of the books) were interesting.
PLURAL
All (of the information) was interesting.
UNCOUNTABLE
In the first example the subject “all” refers to the SINGULAR noun “book”, so the correct verb is therefore the singular verb “was”. In the second example the subject “all” refers to the PLURAL noun “books”, so the correct verb is the plural verb “were”. In the third example the subject “all” refers to the UNCOUNTABLE noun “information”, so the correct verb is therefore the singular verb “was”.
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