[Grammar] eat or eats

[yunie_]

I am debating with a friend over the use of the word 'eat' in the following sentence, which is to be used in our marketing material.

Don't let stress from essay eats you up.

or

Don't let stress from essay eat you up.


One sounds wrong, the other looks wrong. Also, is the sentencing wrong as well? Perhaps there is a better way to phrase this.

 

[emsr2d2]

It should be "eat" because it's the base infinitive. Something seems to be missing before "essay".

Don't let the stress from writing an essay eat you up.
Don't allow the stress from writing an essay to eat you up.

(Note that with "let", we use the bare infinitive but with "allow", we use the "to-infinitive".

 

[yunie_]

Thanks for the clarification!

But this pique my curiosity.. so

'the stress from writing an essay is'
or
'the stress from writing an essay are'?

Also, is there a way to further shorten the sentence:
Don't let the stress from writing an essay eat you up.'

Limited space in the marketing material makes it difficult for long sentences

 

[Rover_KE]

Are you marketing material which helps students to write essays?

 

[yunie_]

Only 'is' is possible. There is no plural word in that sentence that could lead anyone to think that 'are' might work.

Note: The stress from writing essays is ... . There you have a plural form, but it is not the subject of the verb.

Yes that is actually what I meant. Whether bare infinitive word like stress uses 'is' or 'are'.

Are you marketing material which helps students to write essays?

Haha, I can see where you are coming from but no, this is actually for a client that sells online courses.

 

[Rover_KE]

So your client is paying you to do what you want us to do free of charge?

 

[yunie_]

So your client is paying you to do what you want us to do free of charge?

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: It is a short sentence which we can definitely have a proofreader to go through it. I personally am interested in this since I am debating about this with a friend of mine and in that instance, decided to search the web for the answer.

I appreciate help like this and make sure I thank everyone that I have ever asked a favour from on the net. I'm sorry if I am not the type of user that this forum is seeking for.

 

[Tdol]

You could say Don't let essay writing stress eat you up, which saves a a word or two, or Don't be consumed by by essay writing stress.

 

[engee30]

Or this one:
Be essay-writing-stress free.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Don't stress about essay writing.