The English Language

[Alistair Campbell]

What does it mean that
The performance-study groups at U.C.L.A. are an extracurricular activity.?

What do you think it means?

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Iam not sure:
The subject and the linking verbare plural,but what does it mean that such groupss are "an" activity?

[Michael Flatt]

soheil_hooshdaran wrote:
What does it mean that
The performance-study groups at U.C.L.A. are an extracurricular activity.?

What do you think it means?

Iam not sure:
The subject and the linking verbare plural,but what does it mean that such groups are "an" activity?

'An' is an indefinite article. It is basic english grammar.
Are you a troll?

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Groups are activities?

[E Michael White]

soheil_hooshdaran wrote:
What does it mean that
The performance-study groups at U.C.L.A. are an extracurricular activity.?

What do you think it means?

Iam not sure:
The subject and the linking verbare plural,but what does it mean that such groups are "an" activity?

'An' is an indefinite article. It is basic english grammar.
Are you a troll?

Basic it might be but it is incorrect, as Soheil implies, because the subject and verb do not agree in number with the object (or in this case the complement of the verb).

There are only a few exceptions to this number alignment in English. For example:- "Clouds are vapourised water". ( As it happens this is scientifically incorrect as clouds are mostly water droplets. )

[Michael Flatt]

Groups are activities?

No. Performance-study groups is an extracurricular activity.

English as spoken or written by native speakers is not always consistent in agreement between subject and object.

It might be more productive for you to write something original in English yourself rather than attempt to analyse random sentences written by others. Also, you might consider hiring a professional English language tutor to answer your many and often ambiguous questions.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Groups are activities?

No. Performance-study groups are an extracurricular activity.

English as spoken or written by native speakers is not always consistent in agreement between subject and object.
Unfortunately, there are no specific rules that can be followed, but one develops a sense for these subtleties as one becomes more fluent.

It might be more productive for you to write something original in English yourself rather than attempt to analyse random sentences written by others. Also, you might consider hiring a professional English language tutor to answer your many and often ambiguous questions.

It's not a randon sentence. It is in an article about "musicality" which I am to review for translation errors.

[Michael Flatt]

Looking at the sentence again it would probably be more grammatically correct to consider the subject as being singular. Inserting extra words "study of" or "topic of" would make it more obvious but the English would be clumsy.

The [study of] performance-study groups is an extracurricular activity.

The original sentence (in the plural) would only be objectionable to a pedant (or teacher) of English grammar.

It's not a randon sentence. It is in an article about "musicality" which I am to review for translation errors.

What is the source language?

Is this an exercise from a taught course on language translation?

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Looking at the sentence again it would probably be more grammatically correct to consider the subject as being singular. Inserting extra words "study of" or "topic of" would make it more obvious but the English would be clumsy.

The [study of] performance-study groups is an extracurricular activity.

The original sentence (in the plural) would only be objectionable to a pedant (or teacher) of English grammar.

It's not a randon sentence. It is in an article about "musicality" which I am to review for translation errors.

What is the source language?

Is this an exercise from a taught course on language translation?

Oh, no.
The source lang. is English

[Michael Flatt]

The source lang. is English

The original text is in English and you are translating into Farsi or another language?

Incidentally, the word language is normally written in full in formal English.
Similarly, contracted forms such as I'm, You've and others are usually avoided unless they appear in reported dialogue.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Someone translated it into Farsi and wanted me to take a look at and edit it.

[Michael Flatt]

Someone translated it into Farsi and wanted me to take a look at and edit it.

And was it satisfactory or did it require editing?
It seems such a simple phrase to translate.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Satisfactory, but the whole article needed a bit editting.

[Michael Flatt]

Satisfactory, but the whole article needed a bit editting.

How long (how many words) was the article?

[soheil_hooshdaran]

I don't know, but took me ages.