<p>If any signer of the Constitution (was) to return to life, (for a day), his opinion (of) our amendments (would be) interesting.</p>
<p>How is the answer (was)?</p>
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<p>In spite of Tom wanting to study, his sister made him wash the dishes.</p>
<p>How is this rewrite correct:
In spite of Tom's wanting to study, his sister made him wash the dishes.</p>
<p>For the first one “was” should be changed to “were”.</p>
<p>If any signer of the Constitution (was) to return to life, (for a day), his opinion (of) our amendments (would be) interesting.</p>
<p>How is the answer (was)?</p>
<p>It should be “were” because the tense is subjunctive.</p>
<p>An action belongs to someone if they do it. “Tom’s wanting to study” is his act of wanting to study. Despite his not wanting to study, his sister made him wash the dishes. It may sound weird but it is correct.</p>
<p>In spite of Tom’s wanting to study, his sister made him wash the dishes. </p>
<p>This is right because “Tom’s” is in the possessive form modifying “wanting”, which is acting as the noun.
Example: “her car”
“your money”
“Your house” </p>
<p>In each case, the possessive “her or your” precedes the noun, “car or money or house”</p>
<p>So, “Tom’s” is the possessive, modifying “wanting”, a gerund, which is considered a noun.</p>
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<p>Don’t you look at the indefinite pronoun “any” though?? And then determine whether it is plural or singular??</p>
<p>^that’s if the sentence is not in the subjunctive tense, which means that it’s a hypothetical question that has the “if…then…” format. </p>
<p>Because the sentence is hypothetical, “were” is required. You can google “subjunctive tenses” to get more information on this.</p>
<p>ah ok thank you</p>