Automattic / Automattic/harper

Should flag "one of the [plural] **are**

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#2,894 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
agreement enhancement grammar harper-core linting
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

This is a special case of the verb agreeing with the closest noun rather than the head of the noun phrase.

In this case the verb **are** should be the singular **is** to agree with **one**.

It seems to be especially common with "missing". It probably happens with a few other common verbs too, including "have" and "were".

Examples:

- Doesn't display LVM group if **one of the** PVs **are** missing
- Rare glitch where **one of the** frames **are** shortened/missing
- MultiServerMCPClient Failed if **one of the** MCP **are** down
- How to find if **one of the** items **have** completed property with value false
- PostgreSQL trigger if **one of the** columns **have** changed

Closely related:

- An example of a vulnerability might be a gate where the **gap** between _the door and the jam_ **are** too wide.
- If you're going out to buy a business, one thing you don't want **are** surprises.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by locating the existing subject–verb agreement handling and compare it with the listed “one of the” examples and related cases. Done means the intended singular-agreement errors are flagged consistently without regressing nearby agreement behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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