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§ 59. Compound predicates can combine elements of different types. Thus we have:
1. The compound modal verbal nominal predicate.
Jane must feel better pleased than ever.
She couldn’t be happy.
He may have been ill then.
2. he compound modal nominal verbal predicate.
Are you able to walk another two miles?
We were anxious to cooperate.
3. The compound phasal nominal predicate.
He was beginning to look desperate.
George began to be rather ashamed.
4. The compound modal phasal predicate.
You ought to stop doing that.
He can’t continue training.
5. The compound nominal predicate of double orientation.
Mrs Bacon is said to be very ill.
Walter seems to be unhappy.
Agreement of the predicate with the subject
§ 60. The most important type of agreement (concord) in English is that of the subject and the predicate in
number and person. Thus a singular noun-subject requires a singular verb-predicate, a plural noun-subject
requires a plural verb-predicate.
This rule of purely grammatical agreement concerns all present tenses (except modal verbs) and also the past
indefinite of the verb to be.
World literature knows many great humorists.
Great humorists know how to make people laugh.
This rule remains true for:
a) All link verbs irrespective of the number of the predicative noun, as in:
Our only guide was the Polar star.
Our only guide was the stars.
b) The predicate of emphatic constructions with the formal subject it.
It was my friends who suddenly arrived.
It’s they who are responsible for the delay.
§ 61. The verb-predicate is in the singular if the subject is expressed by:
1. An infinitive phrase or phrases.