Jason Schwartzman and Kirsten Dunst discuss their favorite aspects of the Cannes Film Festival in Interview:
Jason: "I have some really good photos of us watching the fireworks."
Kirsten: "That was the best - that and eating those beignets with the jam and the cream. The trip to Cannes was worth the beignets. They were like buttered perfect little clouds with a light dusting of powdered sugar and homemade jam. That peach jam rocked my world! That and watching the fireworks was the best part."
The syntax of the sentence "The trip to Cannes was worth the beignets" is awkward. Kirsten names two things; one is something desirable ("the beignets"), and the other is a process or event that may require time and/or effort or that may be relatively less desirable ("the trip to Cannes"). The conventional structure of a sentence or clause that contains a phrase like "was worth" is the placement of the desirable thing before the one that requires time and/or effort: something is worth the time and/or effort it takes to make or get it. Kirsten has inverted the standard structure. Switch the positions of "the trip to Cannes" and "the beignets" to create a more conventional syntax.
The sentence "That and watching the fireworks was the best part" contains an error in subject/verb agreement. The compound subject ("that and watching the fireworks") is plural, but the verb ("was") is singular. While the predicate nominative ("the best part") is singular, the number of the subject dictates the number of the verb.
This version of Kirsten's statement changes the original awkward syntax to a more conventional structure and corrects the error in subject/verb agreement:
"The beignets were worth the trip to Cannes. That and watching the fireworks were the best part."
In the first sentence, is is necessary to change the number of the original verb to plural because the subject ("the beignets") is now plural.
Another way to change the sentence to create subject/verb agreement is to add words before the second part of the compound verb that will change it into an intervening phrease:
"The beignets were worth the trip to Cannes. That, as well as watching the fireworks, was the best part."
The intervening phrase ("as well as watching the fireworks") is set off by commas and is not part of the subject. The subject is now "that," which is singular and agrees in number with the verb "was."
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