Should I use ARE or IS ???

[tuboludo]

It somehow seems logical in my mind that I write ARE in this sentence instead of IS ??? But Word’s grammar check says that I must use IS ??? that if I want to use ARE, I must use the word “threats”, but I want to use the word “treat” …

Again I must presume that Word is correct?!

Here is the sentence. (excuse my “French”, but it’s part of a dialog from my new book)

“The biggest threat in the future is the fanatic Muslims such as the Muslim Brothers, Takfir wal-Hijra and others who will follow in their footsteps.”

Should I just leave it as is?

[Pumpkin337]

well 'treat' is something nice you have or give as a reward.

After the final exams John gave his students the afternoon off as a treat.

or

Mary gave her dog Boomer a biscuit treat for performing the new trick so well

so in your sentence 'threat' is the correct word.

'threat' is singular so Word is correct 'is' is the correct form.

'one threat' singular IS

'many threats' plural ARE.

[tuboludo]

Thanks Pumkin. "treat" was a typo-mistake on my part. Sorry about that :ihih:

[Pumpkin337]

However ... again ... coming back and reading the sentence again ...

“The biggest threat (s) in the future is (s) the fanatic Muslims (pl) such as the Muslim Brothers (pl), Takfir wal-Hijra and others (pl) who will follow in their footsteps.”

You are mixing singular and plural -

threat singular but you are referring to many people so you need to change it to match.

“The biggest threats (pl) in the future are (pl) the fanatic Muslims (pl) such as the Muslim Brothers (pl), Takfir wal-Hijra and others (pl) who will follow in their footsteps.”

[Pumpkin337]

And isn't it Muslim Brotherhood?

[Frédéric Moreau]

I think that it clearly is 'are' because it refers to 'the Fanatic Muslims', which is a plural syntagma. I don't know if it is correct in English what I am saying, but somehow it seems to me that it is that way.

[tuboludo]

Thanks guys!

[tuboludo]

And isn't it Muslim Brotherhood?

Yes, I guess they are intellectually known as The Muslim Brotherhood. However, they are also know as the The Society of the Muslim Brothers. That said, during my time in Syria everybody referred to them as the Muslim Brothers. So do my Arab friends back home here in Denmark. This sentence is part of a dialog, but through out my book I call them Muslim Brothers, because that is what I have always been used to call them.

[Pumpkin337]

interesting thanks - I've only heard them being called The Muslim Brotherhood

[tuboludo]

interesting thanks - I've only heard them being called The Muslim Brotherhood

I was just correcting a few pages and found out that I do use the word Brotherhood a few times. But in general speaking on the street (dialogs in the book) we just say Brothers ;-)

[tuboludo]

2nd though about this sentence:

I still feel uncomfortable about the sentence. Because I am talking about ONE threat, not several, but ONE. And that ONE threat is coming from different groups of fanatic Muslims such as the Muslim Brothers, Takfir wal-Hijra and others who will follow in their footsteps

Can I solve the problem with a comma? so the sentence could look like this:

“The biggest threat in the future, are the fanatic Muslims such as the Muslim Brothers, Takfir wal-Hijra and others who will follow in their footsteps.”

[Pumpkin337]

Well I would still say it should be 'threats' but ... ran it through a few grammar checks and they don't pick up 'threat' as wrong, so you are in luck.

[tuboludo]

Well I would still say it should be 'threats' but ... ran it through a few grammar checks and they don't pick up 'threat' as wrong, so you are in luck.

So it could work with the comma [,] even though probably not perfect with the comma [,] after "future"??? :

“The biggest threat in the future [,] are the fanatic Muslims such as the Muslim Brothers, Takfir wal-Hijra and others who will follow in their footsteps.”

When I use Word's grammar check it accepts it when there is a comma [,] after "future"

:blush:

[tuboludo]

Funny, when I remove the comma and replaces ARE with IS, Word’s grammar check accepts the sentence without the comma…. You could also reason that “the fanatic Muslims” is ONE group, that the word Muslims in this sense is a SINGULAR word?????

“The biggest threat in the future is the fanatic Muslims such as the Muslim Brothers, Takfir wal-Hijra and others who will follow in their footsteps.”

And then I feel like I am right back where it all began :0