the number of passengers in cruise ships is also soaring  Why is the verb used here 'is' ?  I thought number of passengers is plural and the verb used should be 'are' ?   Pls help.. Thanks !
120545
1) The number of books in economics that we need to buy (is/are) three.   or       2) A number of books in economics that we can buy for the course (is/are) available in the college book store.   Possible answers:  a)is  b)are  My approach:  I am confused here why is and are are used in the 1 and 2 sentence.  What they exactly mean according to subject verb agreement rules.
113859
Why is the dropped in "I go to school by bus"? Why isn't it "I go to the school by the bus" if both school and bus are countable? Does the rule that a countable noun must have an article have an exception here?
93532
Fifty miles is a long way to ride a motorbike.   Why use is with miles which looks like a plural noun? Can you explain me what the rule is?
58215
I was just copyediting  and my native English speaker Sprachgefühl told me I had to correct the grammar of one sentence:     ... 5–6 weeks are a lot of time ...   by changing the are to is. But as I was doing so I started wondering why is it that in this case it seems that I have to make the verb disagree with the plural subject?  So is my feeling for English going bad or if I did the right thing, how could I explain this to somebody who's learning English for instance?
57767
I’m writing a dissertation on network security. I’m unsure which of the following to use:   ...89.9%, which is 57 million users.  ...89.9%, which are 57 million users.   Technically it should be are because it refers to a plural amount of people, but it doesn’t sound right to me considering that 57 million is in a sense one group.
19964
Can you please clarify the relation and differences between these nouns?   For example, is it proper to use "persons" instead of "people"? Are they the same? As I believe that "people" is plural, how come there exists the plural of the plural (=peoples)? Does it have any usage?
7463
A friend wants to write,   There is no hardware to purchase, no additional software to install and no key fobs to worry about.   This is awkward because the verb "is" doesn't match up with the third item, which is plural and demands "There are" as the subject. However,    There is no hardware to purchase, no additional software to install and there are no key fobs to worry about.   sounds awkward as well.  Is there a good workaround for this problem where some list items are singular and some are plural, so they don't share a common verb?
41785
I'm reading a novel based in ye olde pirate-times, and I have come across the author's usage of "cannon" (without the "s") to refer to multiple cannons.     The ship boasted 32 cannon onboard.   Is this just an archaic usage that the author is employing for purposes of story-telling? Also, how/why did this evolve to "cannons" in modern usage?
118332
Someone says I need to use "was", someone says to use "were". Which one is correct?     What I saw were a driver and an attendant.   or     What I saw was a driver and an attendant.
123036
Should I use is or are in this sentence? I don't know what the difference is. As I was trying to figure it out, plural and singular came to mind. Is family plural or singular and is that a factor?   Family is very important to me. Family are very important to.
108398
Well we know that is is the correct form for singular and are is the correct form for plural, right?  As such "There is a great pizza place in Chicago" would be correct in prose or dialogue as would "No, actually there are many great pizza places in Chicago."  However, I hear and occasionally myself say, "If you go to Gino's, I'd stick to the one downtown, but there's several locations now."  So my question is: Is this tense mismatch an eccentricity of speech, or is there any basis for this contraction of there's in plural?  Are you hungry now?  Edit: My question specifically asks for an irregular usage concern. Of course I know what it's supposed to say.
33877
I was solving some general questions about plural and singular. Then I came across a specific type of questions that have a hard time understanding.  Peter and Danny (is/are) going on a walk.  --> here we use 'are' because the subject of the sentence is "Peter AND Danny"  Peter, along with 100 other village people, walks.  --> here, we use "walk's'" because the subject of the sentence is Peter(singluar).  But the problem here is, why is the subject of the first sentence plural, while the subject of the second sentence is singular? Both of the sentences seem to talk about more than one person doing the action (walking), and yet, the subject of the first sentence is pleura, and the subject of the second sentence is singular...   Is it because of the difference between 'and' and 'along with'? If so, what happens if I use 'with', 'or', 'combined with', and so on? In what situation, does the thing become singular or plural?  I know that 'each, every, any, group of people' these types of words and phrases are singular. But if there are other nouns or phrases that I may be confused (like the one written above), it would be very nice if you could mention or talk about such additional things, as it would help me learn more about subject verb agreement. Thank you!
95329
I had a student ask about verb tense in the following question. "Live" is used with "the President", but I can't figure out why I don't want to add the "s". It doesn't "sound" right to me and I can't explain why.  Ex.-Is it important that the President live in the White House? OR Is it important that the President lives in the White House?
86658
I'm aware of (multitudinous)  concerning this, but I still feel tentative for the following example. I also referenced . Predicated on these, I'd guess that        "there are happiness and joy" is correct,   and "there is happiness and joy" is wrong.      Here, there is (I know why it's NOT there are here) a compound subject containing two nouns, thus the verb must be conjugated for a plural subject.  Yet  contradicts this significantly? Why? I fear that I  misconstrued something?
70087
What kind of verb, singular or plural, goes with phrases like "a record of [singular or plural noun]", "the use of", "the time of"? Does the choice depend on the following nouns (a record of nouns) or on the 'first' nouns (record, use, time)? Or do these phrases obey the rule of proximity (as does "a variety of")?  I have found different example sentences on the internet (source: newspapers or magazines) with different uses. What is correct?  Examples:   there were a record of other issues; there were a record of 28,000 runners; there was a record of these statements.
101650
In Microsoft Word, the following sentence is flagged.  It tells me to use "was" instead of "were"     There were half a dozen books strewn about the floor.   I would think that you would use "were" since it's a quantity more than one.  You wouldn't say, "There was twelve books strewn about the floor."  Does the use of the "half" modify it somehow?
46279
I am not sure if the singular or plural forms should be used in the following. Some people go for the plural, but it doesn't seem to have a plural antecedent.     Each month, the school holds a party. This event is / These events are/ successful because it attracts / they attract over two hundred students.   I'd appreciate your help.