Thread: grammar question

Hi! I am working on a new novel (fantasy) and I came across a sentence that illustrates a question I've had for a while. The sentence is:

The only thing that hadn’t been affected [was/were] the universities.

"The only thing" is singular, but "the universities" is plural. Should I use "was" or "were" here?

Thanks in advance.

"Thing" is singular, therefore "was" is what you need. The fact that "universities" is plural is immaterial. The subject of the sentence is the word "thing".

Either put an 's' on the end of thing, and have 'universities. Or, lose the 'ies' and have 'university'.

I don't think universities, singular or plural, can be affected. I think they'd have to be effected.

Well, actually I think it's the other way around. I've been running into comments on effect/affect like this a lot online lately, going contrary to my impression. So I looked it up.


—Usage note
Affect 1 and effect, each both noun and verb, share the sense of “influence,” and because of their similarity in pronunciation are sometimes confused in writing. As a verb affect 1 means “to act on” or “to move” ( His words affected the crowd so deeply that many wept ); affect 2 means “to pretend” or “to assume” ( new students affecting a nonchalance they didn't feel ). The verb effect means “to bring about, accomplish”: Her administration effected radical changes. The noun effect means “result, consequence”: the serious effects of the oil spill. The noun affect 1 pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, is a technical term in psychology and psychiatry. Affect 2 is not used as a noun.

Well I'm pretty clear on the affect/effect thing, but I wasn't sure about was/were. I'll stick with "was". Thanks for the replies.