Re: The phrase "which xxx to [verb]" is singular or plural?

From: Stewart Gordon (smjg_1998_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 07/16/04 

Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 18:08:44 +0100

T. Z. wrote:

> Hi. Thank you for the comments.
> The biggest question I had was:
>
>>> The phrase "which xxx to [verb]" is singular or plural?

Hard to tell, but....

> 1. Which letter to send is a difficult problem.

I think we want a gerund here....

1. Determining which letter to send is a difficult problem.

Gerunds seem to be always singular this far....

> 2. Which conditions to apply is a difficult problem.

Same here.

> 3. Which licensing conditions to apply needs to be
> determined.

3. We need to determine which licensing conditions to apply.

> 4. Which licensing conditions to deliver to the user
> needs to be determined. (I'm not sure about this one.)

Same here.

> The clause "which xxx to [verb]" is like a
> shorthand for "The question of which ...".
> Is this true?
> Where this is true, the phrase is singular.
<snip>

Guess you're right. But omitting it sounds, to me, like a shortening of
"Whichever xxx we want to [verb], that xxx is....". Though rather
unidiomatic.

Stewart. 

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