Infrastructure like bridges were taken down and trees were moved, kicking out wildlife and the community - and 20 graveyards also had change location.
Is “were” the correct verb? Is “change location” a correct phrase?
Thanks.
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The subject of the sentence is “infrastructure” and therefore “was taken down” is the correct choice. However, as you yourself suspected, another problem in this sentence is “20 graveyards had change location”. First of all, “had changed” is the correct form. Even then, the sentence sounds weird because graveyards cannot change their location by themselves. “… community - and 20 graveyards relocated” will be correct. This means “bridges were taken down, wildlife and the community were kicked out, and 20 graveyards were relocated”.
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Many thanks, hakangur.
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Cemetery is more commonly used in modern AmE rather than graveyard. I don’t know if that’s true in other English speaking countries. Graveyard evokes dark dreary images. Cemetery is more polite and doesn’t evoke such dark images.
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Interesting…
I think it’s clear in the original text that the entire infrastructure was not taken down. They say “Infrastructure like bridges”. This is equivalent to saying “The system of public works like bridges”. This is equating “bridges” to a system or group of things, which doesn’t make sense. You can equate “bridges" to parts of the infrastructure.
I think the intent is to talk about just certain parts of the infrastructure and not the entire system.
There are some possibilities to re-write this more clearly.
- The Infrastructure, including things such as bridges, was taken down…
- Infrastructure elements, like bridges, were taken down…
The meaning of the original is, I believe, closer to #2. They awkwardly left out a word such as “elements” or “parts”, but I think that by equating the subject directly to a plural, “were” becomes the better verb.
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Sorry for the belated thanks!
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