PLEASE HELP!!!
“I authorize and direct the Minister to make all payments if I or my former spouse apply (applies?) for benefits under the plan.”
Is it apply or applies? My gut tells me it is apply because I and former spouse are singular subjects.
But I’m confused as to why it is not “applies” because isn’t my “former spouse” 3rd person singular?
Please explain!
Also, where this came from was a legal document where I has to come before my former spouse.
thx
[quote=“jbrow, post:1, topic:680547”]
PLEASE HELP!!!
“I authorize and direct the Minister to make all payments if I or my former spouse apply (applies?) for benefits under the plan.”
Is it apply or applies? My gut tells me it is apply because I and former spouse are singular subjects.
But I’m confused as to why it is not “applies” because isn’t my “former spouse” 3rd person singular?
Please explain!
Also, where this came from was a legal document where I has to come before my former spouse.
[QUOTE]
The general rule in an “either/or” situation like this is to make the verb agree with its first antecedent (the noun referring to the person/thing performing the action). However, this applies in your sentence primarily because the antecedents are each singular and only one of them will presumably apply; if the conjunction were “and” rather than “or,” the use of the plural verb would be obvious. Also, if the conjunction creates a group out of two subjects, one singular and one plural, modern style is to consider the SECOND antecedent to be that which dictates the verb form, unless, frankly, the sentence sounds so dumb with one verb form that you choose the other in order not to make your readers gag. (Believe me, there are cups of espresso being hurled in the faculty lounges of English departments even as we speak over issues such as this.)
So my vote is for “apply.”
If you were being really anal about this you would write “. . . if I apply, or if my spouse applies, for benefits . . .”
But I agree with Desert Dumpster; “if I or my spouse apply” is acceptable, and better than “if I or my spouse applies”.
I disagree with the conclusions above. While most of the analysis is correct (and the OP needed little help with that part), the rule I’m familiar with is that the antecedent nearest the verb controls. Hence “… if I or my spouse applies …” Similarly, if the antecedents are “my father or his partners,” I would write “… if my father or his partners apply …”
What may be throwing my grammatical brethren for a loop is that it’s customary to put “I” last in such constructions: “… if my spouse or I apply …” Some would call that a rule in itself.
Given that it is referring to a hypothetical situation, in traditional grammar “apply” could be in the subjunctive mood, so it would be “apply”, and not “applies”, for a 3rd-person singular subject. That seems to me to be part of the reason why it’s hard to decide whether “applies” or “apply” sounds better in this context.
Same here. It’s called “agreement by proximity.” From what I can tell, though, it’s a grammatical gray area. Agreeing with the closest antecedent sounds, to me, the most natural in ambiguous cases where there is a singular and a plural antecedent. In the OP’s example, I would use “applies” myself, but I can’t say “apply” is wrong either, especially if you parse it as: “I authorize and direct the Minister to make all payments if I (or my former spouse) apply for benefits under the plan.” Parentheses added. I don’t think either form is “wrong” in this case.