<p>The corporation comprised three galaxies and five planets?
The corporation comprises three galaxies and five planets?</p>
<p>Which of the above is correct? I am having trouble with composed of vs comprises vs comprised. I heard there was no comprised of. Can someone explain this and maybe give instances of other verbs like these that can appear on the SAT? THANKS!!</p>
<p>can a KIND soul please help me?</p>
<p>why are there so many ppll reading this but not responding?</p>
<p>“Composed” isn’t really a difficult word to master; basically, it’s the same as “to craft” or “to put together” except with a better (usually more artistic) connotation. Also, you may want to limit its usage to artwork; it’s awkward to say “I composed the school” instead of “I built the school.”</p>
<p>“Comprised” isn’t that bad either; if you say “x comprised y,” you’re basically saying x included y until something happened (x ceased to exist and the union fell apart, etc.). It’s like a big circle comprised all the points along it until you erased the circle.</p>
<p>Finally, “comprises” is the same as “comprised” except it’s still ongoing; i.e., y still makes up x, or you didn’t erase the circle.</p>
<p>I think your problem arises whenever you throw a linking verb (“be” verb) in there. “The dogs are comprised of cells.” “The music is composed of notes.” In those cases, you flip the meaning to “y makes up x.” It’s sorta like a passive form of “comprised of.” Also, “is/are composed of” and “is/are comprised of” have the same meaning, but a lot of people don’t like “is comprised of.” I have no idea why people don’t like it; it may have something to do with a debate like “the whole comprises its parts, but the parts do not necessarily make up the whole.” For instance, I pulled the following sentence form a site:<br>
“Our pets comprise a dog, cat, and tortoise.”
It may not necessarily follow that “our pets are comprised of a dog, cat, and tortoise.” You may have a pet shark that ate all those creatures.</p>
<p>Edit: Just to avoid confusion, it IS acceptable to use “is/are composed of.” It just makes more sense when you say “our pets are composed of a dog, cat, and tortoise,” even though it’s basically the same. I’m sorry I can’t offer a better explanation for that.</p>