Verb Agreement Mixup in The Denver Post

Yesterday's The Denver Post carried a sentence about the Mideast conflict that offers a good example of poor subject/verb agreement. If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that is one of my pet peeves.

Here is the sentence:

He did not disclose what kind of action Netanyahu recommend be taken.”

Subject/verb agreement is always difficult when the sentence has more than one clause--more than one subject and more than one verb. In this sentence, there is the added difficulty of the "be taken" tacked onto the end.

The second clause is basically saying "Netanyahu recommends" action, but the reporter doesn't know what kind. Netanyahu is one person (singular), so the verb should be "recommends," which is singular.

Addiing to the confusion and awkwardness is the phrase "be taken," which serves no purpose whatsoever in the sentence. If it's action, it's being taken, so that phrase is implied.

I would suggest that the sentence reads correctly and much more smoothly this way:

He did not disclose what kind of action Netanyahu recommends.”