Everyone, I am an English learner. I had a question when I was reading the following article from the publication of Minneapolis FED:
The Affordable Care Act has come under much scrutiny since its passage in 2010. The program recently concluded its second annual sign-up period, and while the ACA continues to see enrollments increase, there are a lot of nuances that make the rollout and impact of this law a bit different in every district state.
I am wondering if the "increase" following "enrollments" is a verb, and whether between the verb "see" and the noun "enrollments" there should have been a "that" that is being ignored for simplicity?
By the way, if I want to revise the phrase to be in the verb + object (noun) structure, is it correct that all I have to do is to remove the "s" from enrollments? In doing so, I think the plural noun "enrollments" is reduced to "enrollment" and becomes an adjective.
Thanks.
Best Answer
Yes, 'increase' is being used as a verb. If there are more enrollments over time, then enrollments are increasing, and someone observing this would "see enrollments increase".
If you added a 'that', like so:
It makes it sound like the ACA is causing enrollments to increase. Right now, I am seeing that this question is answered. Someone observing me answer the question would be seeing this question answered.
To convert to this other structure, you are correct that you would remove the 's' from the end of enrollment. But that's not all. With just that change, we have:
In this sentence, "enrollment" represents the total number of students enrolled, rather than "enrollments" representing individual instances of people enrolling. So, "increase" is still a verb describing what that number is doing.
To make the full switch, you would also need to add an 's' to the end of 'increase':
Now the ACA is is seeing "increases", and the type of increases they are seeing are "enrollment increases".
Other possible phrasings include: