English Sentence Daily

2023年2月17日

I’ll give this cookie to whichever of you wants it.

The word “wants” is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb “want”, which means to have a desire or a need for something. When a verb is conjugated in the present tense, its ending changes based on the subject of the sentence.

In the sentence “I want the cookie,” the subject “I” requires the base form of the verb “want”. However, in the sentence “he/she/it wants the cookie,” the subject “he/she/it” requires the third-person singular form “wants”.

So, in the original sentence “I’ll give this cookie to whichever of you wants it,” “wants” is used because the subject “whichever of you” is a third-person singular subject, and therefore requires the third-person singular form of the verb “want”.