put

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1
  1. Her energy, enthusiasm and presentation puts the rest of us to shame.
  2. Her energy, enthusiasm and presentation put the rest of us to shame.
    Which one is correct?
    Thanks.
2

It depends on whether you are writing in the present tense (1) or the past tense (2).

3

This isn’t really a question of tense but of number. If you consider

as a collection, you would use ‘puts’ but if you consider

as individual qualities, you would use ‘put’.

In other words both are ‘correct’.

4

That’s another way of reading it, but if you simplify the sentence, it still comes down to tenses.
Simplify it:
Her energy put the rest of us to shame (at some past time).
Her energy puts the rest of us to shame (now/ on a continuing basis).

5

Why are you changing the question that was asked? What has it go to do with ‘simplifying’? Let me ‘simplify’ - this is surely a classic question about whether the subject of a sentence is singular or plural.

6

I tried to avoid yet another rebuttal, but as you call for simplicity, I’m changing the question slightly to make it easier for people to see a point, obviously.
The point being that there is nothing wrong with my answer in sentence #2, and this can very easily be a question about tenses regarding the verb ‘to put’.

Are you going to tell me that any of these permutations are not possible? Unless you are, I don’t see how you can be so dismissive of another answer as being less plausible than your own.

The girl puts the box down.
The twins put the box down.

The girl put the box down.
The twins put the box down.

7

Hi Allifathima

Out of interest was your question at *1 about the tense of the verb ‘put’ or about whether the subject

was singular or plural?

Alan

8

Alan,
Initially I thought the subject is plural, but after reading Madam Bee’s reply, I know that it can be treated as singular.
Am I not right?
Thanks.

9

Thank you Allifathima. Yes both are possible as I said at 3…

10

… and as I said at #2, albeit for a different reason.
Or do you still wish to insist that this is not correct?

  1. Her energy, enthusiasm and presentation puts the rest of us to shame. (now)
  2. Her energy, enthusiasm and presentation put the rest of us to shame. (in the past)
11

Oh dear this is becoming so tedious. I am not insisting on anything. I go back to my original comment that I believed the question was not about tense but about whether the subject was singular or plural. And apparently that was what the good lady was asking about.

12

The ‘good lady’ doesn’t appear to be completely sure what she was asking about, but I am glad you aren’t insisting on anything.