4.应注意的几个问题。
A)名词作主语
1)某些集体名词(如family,team等)作主语时,如果作为一个整体看待,谓语动词用单数形式;如果就其中一个个成员而言,谓语动词用复数形式。例如:His family was poor and he used to sit in the family garage and draw pictures there. The whole family are watching TV.
这类名词有:audience,class,club,committe,company, crew,crowd,enemy, government, group, party, public, team,等等。
名词population一词的使用情况跟上述类似。例如:
The population in China is very large,and eighty percent of the population in China are farmers.
"a group (crowd) of+复数名词"等短语之后的谓语动词也同样可用单数或复数,前者强调整体,后者强调各个部分。
2)某些集体名词(如people,police,cattle等)只当复数看待,谓语动词必须用复数。例如:
The police are searching for him.
Cattle are one cause of the problem.
但people作"民族"讲时,谓语动词可用单数。例如:
Every people has its own ways of living.
每个民族都有他自己的生活方式。
3)单、复数同形的名词作主语时,谓语动词应根据意义决定单、复数。例如:A sheep is over there.Some sheep are over there.
4)名词所有格之后的名词被省略的情况一般只指商店、工场、住宅等,作主语时,动词一般用单数。例如:
The doctor's is on the side of the street.
My uncle's is not far from here.
常见的省略名词有:the baker's,the barber's,the carpenter's,the Zhang's,等等。
表示店铺的名词一般作集体名词看待,但用作主语时,谓语动词往往用复数。例如:
Richardson's have a lot of leather goods to sell.
5)当名词词组中心词为表示度量、距离、金额、时间、书名等复数名词时,往往可以根据意义一致的原则,把这些复数名词看作一个整体,谓语用单数形式。例如:
Three years has passed.
The Selected Poems of Li Bai was published long ago.
Two hours is a long time to take over a coffee.
6)不定代词each,every,no所修饰的名词即使以and或逗号连接成多个并列主语,谓语动词仍用单数形式。例如:No clothes and no food is difficult to live.Each boy and each girl wants to serve the people in the future.
7)如果主语有more than one...或many a...构成,尽管从意义上看是复数内容,但它的谓语动词仍用单数形式。例如:
More than one student has seen the film.
Many a ship has been damaged in the storm.
但是,在"more+复数名词+than one"结构之后,谓语动词一般用复数形式。例如:More members than one are against your plan.
8)一些由两个部分构成的名词表示衣物或工具作主语时,谓语通常用复数形式,如glasses(眼镜),clothes,trousers,shoes,compasses,chopsticks,scissors等。但如果主语由"a kind of,a pair of,a series of等加名词"构成时,谓语动词一般用单数形式。例如:A pair of shoes was in the box.
"pair/piece+of+名词或代词"作主语时,谓语动词与pair和piece等词保持一致,与of之后的名词或代词无关。例如:
The pieces of stone were carried to the new place for the temple,60 metres higher up the hill.They watched pairs of people who were sitting in college coffeeshops for at least an hour.
9)this kind of book=a book of this kind(这种书),其谓语用单数;短语this kind of men=men of this kind=these kind of men(口语)(这一类人),但this kind of men的谓语用单数,men of this kind和these kind of men的谓语用复数。all kinds of后跟复数名词,谓语用复数形式。例如:
This kind of men is dangerous.Men of this kind are dangerous.
10)复数形式的单、复数同形的名词作主语时,按意义一致的原则,作单数意义时,谓语用单数;反之,谓语用复数。这类名词有means(方法),works(工厂),species(种类),Chinese,Japanese等。例如:The (This) glass works was set up in 1980.这家玻璃厂建于1980年。The(These) glass works are near the railway station.这些玻璃厂在火车站附近。当它们前面有a,such a,this,that修饰时,谓语用单数;有all,such,these,those修饰时,谓语用复数,但"means","no means","the means"等词前没有以上修饰词时,可用作单数,也可用作复数。
注:work作"工作"解时是不可数名词,作"著作"解时是可数名词,有单复数之分。
11)如果名词词组中心词是all,most,half,rest,part等词语,表示的是复数意义,谓语动词用复数形式;反之,用单数。例如:
All of my classmates work hard.All of the water is gone.
12)在主谓倒装的句子中,谓语动词的数应与其后的主语一致。例如:
Between the two windows hangs a picture.
