She is one of those women who speaks well of others.

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jezx - 06 Nov 2003 14:12 GMT

1. She is one of those women who speaks well of others.
2. She is one of those women who speak well of others.

Someone please help - which is correct 1 or 2 and why?

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Mike C - 08 Nov 2003 03:24 GMT

>1. She is one of those women who speaks well of others.
>2. She is one of those women who speak well of others.
>
>Someone please help - which is correct 1 or 2 and why?

2 is grammatically correct, though 1 is far more common in everyday
speech. The statement is literally saying that "She" is a member of a
group which is defined by the action "to speak well of others".
"Those" in the original sentence replaces "they", since the reference
is to an impersonal noun, "women". You can usually figure these out
just by trying to substitute a pronoun and then checking for verb
agreement.

Mike

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Mike - 15 Jan 2004 05:37 GMT

I'd vote for number two for the following reason:
"those women who speak well of others" is a complete thought in itself, and
is the object of the preceding preposition "of". The phrase modifies
"one", which is the direct object of the sentence. "She" is the subject,
and "is" is the verb. The subject and verb do agree in number. It's not
necessary for a verb in the prepositional phrase which modifies the direct
object to agree in number with the subject.

> >1. She is one of those women who speaks well of others.
> >2. She is one of those women who speak well of others.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Mike

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Scotius - 19 Jan 2004 07:51 GMT

>1. She is one of those women who speaks well of others.
>2. She is one of those women who speak well of others.
>
>Someone please help - which is correct 1 or 2 and why?

It sounds more correct the first way, but it isn't. "She" isn't
the person relative to those who "speak well of others", but "those
women" are, and so the second is correct, since "women" is a plural,
and women speak, but do not "speaks".

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

She is one of those women who speaks well of others.