Is this sentence grammatically correct?
"I am totally committed to continuing the daily actions, both big and small, that achieving my goals require."
Should “require” be “requires” instead?
Or should it be completely re-worded?
Thanks guys.
I would say “requires” - the verb should agree with the singular subject - “achieving my goals” (I believe this is a gerund?) Don’t be misled just because ‘goals’ is plural - the real subject is the phrase, “achieving my goals”.
To evade the question:
“I am totally committed to continuing the daily actions, both big and small, required for achieving my goals.”
As it stands now, it should be “requires,” because the gerund “achieving” is the noun that doing the requiring, and it’s singular.
But it should be recast, I would think. It sounds a little awkward to me.
“I am totally committed to continuing the daily actions that are necessary for my goals to be achieved.”
Hoo boy. Does that sound any better?
It’s early, and this sort of post just cries out for Gaudere’s Law, so forgive any mistakes I may make.
It should be “requires,” which agrees with the subject of the clause, “achieving my goals.”
“I am totally committed to continuing the daily actions, both big and small, required to achieve my goals.” flows a little better, but I’m sure an editor will be along shortly to help you with that.
I think it should be requires, since it is “achieving my goals” that is requiring.
IMHO reword it to make it clearer (do you need both ‘continue’ and ‘daily’? Would ‘needed to achieve my goals’ be better?) what you are doing, but you probably don’t want to, as you know who needs to read it, and I don’t.
Good morning, dearest Dopers. Thanks for answering so early in the day.
This is a sentence from a document I read every morning to psych myself up for the day.
So far, I like MikeTurk’s rewording best. Any other opinions?
Well, as the Deutschlandere(innen) would say, “Gute Dinge sind drei.”
(Good things come in threes.)
Hell of a simulpost, y’all.
Gaudere’s Law?
The subject for “require” is “achieving my goals”, which could be written more clearly as “the act of achieving my goals”. So it should be “requires”. However, I would re-write the sentence, perhaps as:
In order to achieve my goals, I must perform certain actions every day. Some are big, some are small, and I am totally committed to continuing all of them.
I know this is less concise, but I think it’s more readable. You’ll obviously want to change it about to suit the emphasis and tone you’re trying to convey.
Named after one of our mods, Gaudere’s Law maintains that any post made solely to correct the grammar or spelling of another post will invariably contain one or more syntax or spelling errors. Empirical evidence suggests this is usually the case.
Hey G.:
Thanks for the suggestion, but holy wordiness, Batman!
Good God.
“I am totally committed to achieving my goals.”
I don’t know what the rest of that kerfuffle is for.
The daily actions part is important.
“I should be totally committed for using as many words as possible in an effort to psych myself up at the beginning of each and every day.”
How about:
I’ll do whatever it takes every day for my own personal gains.
Peace,
moriah
Editor of Supervillians Quarterly
I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me when I do daily actions.
I’m supposed to visit my sister-in-law in B’more soon. Please don’t make me stop by Silver Spring just to whoop your ass, dantheman.
:::curbing my rage:::
I can’t help it that I’m a fun-loving sociopath. Really, I can’t.
If you gave us some context we’d be able to reword better.