There, Their; Concord Matters: Alongside

Sample 1:”It has been proven on numerous occasions that disability is not the end of life as their are many people who their disability were able to make an impact in life and were able to achieve their set goals.(Meet disabled son of ex-Ogun Gov and her Jamaican born wife, Opera News, 28 December, 2020)

There are several blemishes in this excerpt but the most obvious is found in the phrase: “their are many people.” The word deserving the most attention is: their. It is a matter of elementary grammar that the form there should be the appropriate word in the context. This, I think, is one of the basic points of grammar we learnt at the elementary school.It is obvious that the writer has no grasp of the grammatical difference between the forms there and their. The error is irritatingly shameful.

In the light of this, it is important to illustrate the difference between the words there andtheir.

 

Please read the following sentences:

1) There are many more people outside the hall than inside.

2) There is no wisdom in that suggestion.

3) There were rumours that the president had another woman in his life.

4) There is no reason to leave so early since the programme is scheduled to commence late in the afternoon.

5) There were many undercover security men snooping around.

6) There was no truth in the story.

7) Neither the chairman nor the secretary was there.

8) I was able to pick some useful information here and there.

9) How soon will you be there?

10) I was there waiting for you for almost three hours.

 

For the proper usage of the word their, please  read the following sentences:

1) Their house is not far from ours.

2) The ancient Jews and their forefathers are part of the heroes of the Christian faith.

3) Their lawyers are holding a meeting with our own lawyers next week.

4) Sadly, their plan is to destroy their opponents’ business interests.

5) I find it difficult to understand why they could not mind their business.

6) Their directors are planning to reduce the workforce.

7) It is not their duty to tell us how to run our own affairs.

8) Their students are not even half as brilliant as our own.

9) Their house is directly opposite the bank.

10) How can our failure be a reason for their celebration?

 

The following sentences each contain the two words under consideration:

1) Were you not there when their thugs attacked our chairman?

2) It is their fault that their representatives were not there when the case started.

3) There were a few men at the meeting who claimed to be representing their bosses’ interest.

4) A lady went there, met the children, claimed be their mother’s friend and took some money from them.

5) I was there when our president visited that country and said something positive about their political system.

It should be obvious now that the word there should replace their in the context under review.

Having brought about that change in the grammar of the excerpt, we need to pay as much attention to the subsequent stretch of the text. Read this: “there are many people who their disability were able to make an impact in life and were able to achieve their set goals.”The concern of this aspect of the analysis is concord—the grammatical harmony that is expected to exist among elementsof a given stretch of language. The form were occurs twice: one after the noun disability and one after the conjunction (and).

Basic grammar does teach us that the verb were is a plural form. That is what it is—a plural form of the verb. The next logical question is: What element of the clause is the form were supposed to be in concord with? Logic points clearly to the noun disability. It is obviously at this point that the writer’s logic and concord fail. The word disability is undoubtedly a singular noun. How then can we reconcile a singular noun with a plural verb-form (were)? Logic and grammar do not allow that. The singular form (of were) is was. That form (was) should replace the pluralform in each of the two appearances. The relevant portion of the text should now read:“there are many people who their disability was able to make an impact in life and was able to achieve their set goals.”

Literary minds, even after the grammatical editing, would still find something ungainly about the text. Does it not have a real problem of prolixity, of pointless verbosity, a problem that may be as noxious as the adverse grammatical rendering already corrected? What do you think of this revised version: “there are many people whose disability could not prevent them from making an impact in life and achieving their set goals.”? This is only a suggestion. I am quite sure there are readers who could come up with a much more effective version than mine.

Sample 2: “The Punch had earlier reported that Mrs Ale, alongside one other person, were kidnapped on Thursday evening along the Ondo-Akure Expressway from Lagos to Akure.”(Akeredolu’s Chief of Staff’s wife regains freedom, The Punch online, 28 Nov., 2020)

The focus is on the verb were which occurs in the following context: “werekidnapped on Thusday evening.” That verb is in its plural form, and it must of course be or meant to be in agreement with a particular noun which we give ourselves the task of identifying. The form of a verb is determined by the number (singular or plural) of the noun it is meant to be in concord with. What is the relevant noun to whose plural form we must trace the plural form of the verb?

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