I'm running Grammarly over my scenes, which is working well enough, but now it comes up with a suggestion that I think is wrong, but I'm not English enough to be sure. This is my line: This town barely had enough work for one construction crew, and two of them trying to undercut each other’s prices wasn’t going to make anybody any good money. Grammarly wants me to replace wasn't with weren't, claiming that the verb was doesn't agree with the subject. I learned my grammar in Dutch, so I don't know the terms in English very well, but it seems Grammarly thinks I'm referring to two of them, while I think I'm referring to the singular act of making money.
Grammarly is wrong, but I suggest you do this: This town barely had enough work for one construction crew, and two of them trying to undercut each other’s prices wasn’t going to make anybody any good money. To undercut already includes the notion of reducing prices, so you don't need to explain it. You can also cut "good". Doing that increases the impact of the consequence.
Yeah, you were right. Grammarly probably thinks "prices" (plural) is the subject, but it's really the act of "trying to" that's looking for the verb, which is singular.
Thanks. Case closed and I'm copy/pasting @Naomasa298 's line. I'll put your name on the cover as co-author. ;o)
