Grits is Good

Way, way, way back, when She was in high school, her Senior Advanced English teacher, Mrs. Vickery, would occasionally climb up on various grammatical soapboxes. One particular day, she stepped up on a grits box. Mrs. Vickery spent several passionate minutes relating to her students the correct subject verb agreement for the word “grits”. When referring to this southern staple, one is not suggesting anything about each individual grain, or grit, but the dish as a whole. Therefore, because “grits” is a singular noun, the grammatically correct statement would be “these grits is good”, rather than “these grits are good”. As painful as it sounds, it is correct!


Other singular nouns include “news” (“The news on the economy is just terrible right now); “physics” (“Physics is a natural science)?; and “data” (The data is collected over several months). Some of these subject verb combinations come more naturally than “Grits is good”, but they are all in the same category.


How about the grits was good?

Be sure to check back with us another time to hear about Mrs. Vickery’s contempt for the written use of the word “alot”, and her aversion to misplaced apostrophes!




4 thoughts on “Grits is Good

  1. That plate of grits is making me hungry. I love grits with cheese and lots of butter just like you have pictured.

    I avoided using “are” while talking about grits above because to me saying “is” when I am talking about grits makes me feel strange even it is correct.


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