Re:I have many hobbies; one of them is soap operas". Hmm--in a way, this is similar to your sentence; you wrote 'hobbies is', and I wrote 'them is'.
Yes, recasting the sentence can change thing! in your recast, Jackie, you changed the object! I have many hobbies; one of them refers to object hobbies, it is really "one of the(m) hobbies"=(one hobby)which clearly is singular and takes is as the verb.
simplifed--I have hobbies. (subject: i verb: have object: hobbies,and in the second half of the sentence, (subject: one, dependant clause*: (of them (implied: hobbies)-(with one being the subject, and of them a dependant clause)a singular noun again!) verb: is (singular verb form) object: soap operas!
the meaning of the dependant clause "depends on" the object in the first sentence (or in this case,first clause of the sentence)
sometimes- a collective plural object is treated like a singluar:
Oils is a singluar object for the verb phrase Oil painting(watercolors works the same way)
soap opera's is a singular object for watching soap opera's
you could perhaps also use "wild mushrooms" for collecting wild mushrooms" (My hobby is wild mushrooms=my hobby is collecting wild mushrooms)
what helps me recast, is i learned to diagram sentences, (everyone who knows what i mean raise their hand, yes, i see my dear Mr Bingley, and Faldage, and twuwm, and puzzled looks on everyone elses faces asking "What is diagraming?"- so i can "see" dependent clause, and prepositional phrases very clearly!
it is a fairly common error in spoken english (and all too often in written english), to have a dependant clause too far away from the object it is referring to. (the rule is, a dependant clause refer back to the last noun/object.) many of us make that common mistake here, and frequently!(me include!) and almost every time, it becomes a source of humor. (we had one example recently-- i'll see if i can find it.)
The reason it is common here, is, most of the post are in a written form of spoken english, not in proper written english..
an example, Yes is proper (formal) answer for the affirmative, but when english speakers speak, they rarely say "Yes" but say yeah, or sure or OK oryup... words you will commonly find here!(like "yeah, but")
