Small grammar confusion: SOP

Hi all,

I am returning for help on this forum after a long time. Not sure if EF_Kevin or EF_Susan are still here. Anyways I wanted to know which of these sentences are correct and what should be the usage for it since I can't find the exact usage on internet.

1). research and innovation has always been a fundamental theme of my academic endeavours.
2). research and innovation have always been a fundamental theme of my academic endeavours.

Thanks a lot.
Cheers :)

I don't for sure what exactly you want on how to fix it, but here is what I think you should add:

1). research and innovation has been always been a fundamental theme of my academic endeavours.
2). research and innovation have been always been a fundamental theme of my academic endeavours.
That is you are talking in past tense, but you could remove the been if it isn't past tense.

Also, you could choose the one that seems more correct, or listen to those more experienced in the forums.

It depends on your interpretation. For example, this sentence :


This would just become grammatically correct if you are interpreting the subject singular. Meaning, "research and innovation" only denotes one.

However, on the contrary, this one:


This sentence would only be grammatically correct if you are interpreting the subject plural. That only means that the subject does not pertain as one --research and innovation are separate things.


Actually, you can place the adverb "always" after or between has and been.

Hope it helps:)