Friday, June 14, 2013

spot the grammatical error

From the article I'd linked to previously:

Ironically, the multiplication of mandates and other regulations in the ACA on both private insurers and government-run programs like Medicare and Medicaid have more doctors opting out of the third-party-payer system altogether.

Ruth and I were just discussing this type of error last night.


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4 comments:

  1. Looks like an error in number concerning the verb. The multiplication of mandates... has more doctors opting out...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve nails it like a porn star!

    Indeed: it's a subject-verb agreement issue, and the specific error is number: the simple subject, "multiplication," is singular, so the simple predicate should be "has," not "have."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Singular?! Ha! Every schoolboy knows that when you multiply plurals by plurals, you get plurals!

    Note: "the multiplication of mandates and other regulations."

    Operation: "mandates" X "regulations."

    Conclusion: "multiplication" is plural!

    Q.E.D.

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ahh, the old subject-verb disagreement.

    When we were kids, we learned how to diagram complicated sentences so you could avoid this kind of error. Nowadays, who knows?

    ReplyDelete

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