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Were or was?



 
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ESL Forums | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
Expression: would begin | What is the meaning of cliche?
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Were or was? #1 (permalink) Fri Jun 01, 2007 5:57 am   Were or was?		  
Hi,

I'd like to ask of you an extremely abecedarian question, (please don't laugh Very Happy ) which is based on the sentence-

Quote:
What we were impatient to see were those fabulous pictures, especially the color ones.

1. Does 'were' suggest the subject is 'pictures'? If so, why cannot 'what' be its subject?

2. If so, the sentence is equavelent to 'Those fabulous pictures, especially the color ones, were what we were impatient to see.' Then, what is the difference? Just the question of order?

3. Supposing 'what' is its subject, 'was' should be the verb, right?

Thank you!

Haihao
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was/were #2 (permalink) Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:30 am   was/were		  
Hi Haihao,

To me 'what' suggests those things/objects and so I have a preference for 'were'. Your turnaround sentence (2) says exactly that. Why the word order? Well, putting 'what' first is a device for emphasising that's what we wanted and we didn't want anything else.

Alan
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Were or was? #3 (permalink) Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:51 am   Were or was?		  
Hi Alan,

You took every piece of doubt away from my uneasy brain again! Thank you! Smile

Haihao
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Expression: would begin | What is the meaning of cliche?
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