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Should I use the singular “was” or the plural “were” in the following sentence?

The first thing that I noticed was (OR) were the street performers singing near the main entrance of the park.

If I reversed the order, should the verb agree with its antecedent the street performers, which is a plural noun, or with singular noun “thing”?

The street performers, singing near the main entrance of the park, were (OR) was the first thing I noticed.

I could change the singular thing into things but I am uncomfortable with saying “the performers” are “things”.

The street performers, singing near the main entrance of the park, were the first things I noticed.

Mari-Lou A
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Josh
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    It are us or It is us? – Edwin Ashworth Sep 02 '15 at 21:36
  • About 255 results in Google Books for *the first thing I noticed* (and hundreds more for *next/only thing he/she/we/they etc. etc*) suggest that it's as much a matter of style/nuance as anything. – FumbleFingers Sep 02 '15 at 22:02
  • @FF I'm very unhappy with the plural verb here. 'I noticed several things. The first thing were the street performers.' It sounds very unnatural to my ears. I'm convinced that 'It is us' is archetypal. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 02 '15 at 22:13
  • Hi, Josh. Your question is on the verge of being closed because (1) you don't indicate why you think there may be an issue involving was vs. were in the example sentence, and (2) you don't report anything you've found out in researching the question before asking it here. Please consider adding some coverage of these points to your question. – Sven Yargs Sep 02 '15 at 22:59
  • @Edwin: There's a world of difference with your version - a straight SVO with nothing between the superficially singular subject and the verb itself. And you're skewing the contextual pragmatics by explicitly pointing out that "the first thing" is *one of several*. – FumbleFingers Sep 03 '15 at 00:30
  • chasly, and Egmont at Wordreference.com (I can't find a more recognised authority) both agree that the acceptable agreement is 'grammatical' rather than 'proximal: complement' here. //// Ah! 4. When two nouns are connected by some form of the verb to be, the first noun is the grammatical subject, and the verb agrees with it. ... WRONG: The first [thing] we noticed were the [shoes]. / CORRECT: The first [thing] we noticed was the [shoes]. / CORRECT: The shoes were the first thing we noticed. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 03 '15 at 11:47
  • The above from ClaremontGraduateUniversity. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 03 '15 at 11:51
  • @EdwinAshworth thank you for posting the link from Claremont. – michael_timofeev Sep 03 '15 at 16:33
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    possible duplicate of The most amazing thing (was/were) the people who – Mari-Lou A Sep 05 '15 at 07:57

1 Answers1

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'The first thing was ...' The subject of the verb 'to be' is 'thing.'

You could say, 'The first things were...' –

chasly - supports Monica
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