Automattic / Automattic/harper

feat: Flag wrong number agreement between subject and verb

Open
#435 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
agreement enhancement harper-core linting
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

This is usually a mistake made by English learners or by native speakers overlooking results of rearranging wording while editing:

- What **does** **the specs** say? → What **do** the **specs** say?
- The **characters** used **is**: → The **characters** used **are**:

On occasion it might be the noun that's wrong rather than the verb:

- → What **does** the **spec** say?
- → The **character** used **is**:

Sometimes it could be either:
- To me, the load bearing **factor were** the expectations from how open source is typically done ...
- → the load bearing **factor was** ...
- → the load bearing **factors were** ...

Sometimes the writer is confused by words between the inflected noun / head of the noun phrase, and the verb.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

The issue provides example sentences but names no files, tests, or entry points. Start by locating the existing grammar-rule handling for subject–verb agreement, then determine how intervening words and noun-versus-verb ambiguity should be handled. Done means the listed examples are diagnosed correctly.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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