[Grammar] "My tea and food is/are delicious."

[Sneymarin]

Hello, I have a question about Subject-Verb Agreement that I hope you could help me with. I'm not sure which verb to use here:

"My tea and food is/are delicious."

"My tea and food is/are delicious" as in "The tea and food prepared by me is/are delicious."

I originally said "is", but then someone pointed out that it should be "are", so that made me uncertain as to what is actually correct.

Thank you for your time

 

[Rover_KE]

Hello, I have a question about subject-verb agreement that I hope you can help me with.

I have changed your thread title.

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[Sneymarin]

I'm sorry and thank you, I forgot about that. Also, I would like to ask why you changed "could" to "can" in my post. Isn't "could" fine when making polite requests?

 

[tzfujimino]

You could say "I was wondering if you could ...".


(Edit)Or "I was hoping (that) you could ..."

 

[Sneymarin]

You could say "I was wondering if you could ...".


(Edit)Or "I was hoping (that) you could ..."

So what I said is incorrect?

 

[emsr2d2]

So is what I said [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] incorrect?

Please note my correction above. Whilst native speakers do use declarative statements with questioning intonation to express a question, we discourage learners from doing so. Use the standard interrogative word order on the forum, please.

See below for examples of "can" and "could" in your sentence.

I hope you can help me.
I wonder if you can help me.
I hoped you could help me.
I was wondering if you could help me.

 

[teechar]

I hoped you could help me.

I wouldn't use that for a present/future request.

 

[Sneymarin]

But I thought that since in a sentence like "Could you help me?" you could use "could" instead of "can" to make the request more polite, I could use it in my sentence for the same reason. Does that work only in questions?

 

[jutfrank]

Does that work only in questions?

The short answer is yes.

 

[teechar]

"Could" is okay. I would use "hope", not "hoped" in that.

 

[Sneymarin]

"Could" is okay. I would use "hope", not "hoped" in that.

I'm sorry, but to which sentence are you referring?

 

[emsr2d2]

I wouldn't use that for a present/future request.

I would if it was clear that I was referring back to the time that I decided to write the post. For example:

I was just thinking about this problem and hoped you could help me.

 

[teechar]

That's not a present/future request.

 

[emsr2d2]

That's not a present/future request.

If I haven't yet asked for the help, it would be in the future.


Dear Mr Bond

The other week, I was asked to solve a big problem - a friend of mine needs someone to pop over to Bazanaland and steal some state secrets for them. We'd need an effective spy who can get in and out as quickly as possible, preferably without blowing anything up.

So ... I was wondering if you could help me. There'd be several Martinis in it for you.

Let me know!

Anna Mossity

 

[Rover_KE]

I would like to ask why you changed "could" to "can" in my post.

It's just my preference.

 

[Sneymarin]

It's just my preference.

I don't understand. Does that mean that how I phrased it originally is fine?

 

[tedmc]

You hope for a certainty, not a likelihood. So, it is only logical that you hope that something will happen, rather than something is likely to happen.
"Could" does not make the sentence more polite.

 

[tedmc]

No.

Why not?

 

[tedmc]

Then how do you explain why can is better than could? Hoping something will come true does not mean it definitely will. We hope for something positive, not something probable.

 

[Rover_KE]

I don't understand. Does that mean that how I phrased it originally is fine?

Yes.