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+--- Thread: Mistakes (/Thread-Mistakes)
Mistakes - thatgamerkid - 06-23-2011
Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not sure where to go to correct something that is quite clearly wrong. So... I came here
The sentence given is "Leasing is a popular way of acquiring a new car or truck, and its use have really exploded just within the last ten years."
Obviously, have should be changed to has, though the explanation the website gives for this is that "'its use' refers to the use (of leasing)"
In this sentence (as we have gone over many times) we have 2 separate clauses. In the first clause the subject and verb are "Leasing is." In the second clause the subject and verb are "Its use have" "have" has to match "Its use" regardless of what "Its use" refers to. If leasing had multiple uses (which it does in some cases but that's beside the point) the sentence could be just as easily written "Leasing is a popular way of acquiring a new car or truck, and its uses have really exploded just within the last ten years."
You wouldn't write "Its uses has" just because uses refers to leasing.
Mistakes - irnbru - 06-23-2011
Here's a hint: put a full stop after "...acquiring a new car or truck." See how it reads as two sentences.
Mistakes - Storyteller - 06-23-2011
Ditto Irnbru!
Mistakes - bkahuna - 06-23-2011
Also if you separate to two sentences I had a professor way back when who hated the use of its, this, thats why, etc at the beginning of sentences.
When in doubt use fewer words. The words 'really' 'very' etc add little or nothing to the sentence.
I would rephrase to either of these:
"Leasing is a popular way of acquiring a new car or truck, its use having increased within the last ten years."
or
"Leasing has become an increasingly popular way of acquiring a new vehicle in the last ten years"
or the two sentence approach
"Leasing is a popular way of acquiring a new vehicle. Financing vehicles through leasing has increased over the last ten years"
I think I would choose the 2nd single sentence above, but its purely style. The key is making sure its something you would say in the way you would phrase it.