A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

Measure expressions

2.3 Subject-verb agreement 89

Expressions like ten days, twenty dollars,five miles, etc., are plural in form but the
quantity or measure they denote can be conceptualised as a single abstract entity,
and this singular conceptualisation can override the plural form in determining the
form of the verb. So the following examples have plural subjects with a singular
agreement form of the verb:

[19] a. Te n days iJ. a long time to be on your own.

b. Twenty dollars seems fa r too much to pay fo r a takeaway pizza.

11 a. That ten days we spent together in Pa ris was wonderful.

b. Another three eggs iJ. all we need.

Ten days can be seen as a single block of time; twenty dollars is a price; three eggs
can be viewed as a single quantity of food. Note that in the [ii] cases the measure
expression not only takes a singular verb, it even occurs with a determiner that nor­
mally selects a singular head (cf. that day, another egg).

Quantificational nouns

There are a few nouns expressing quantification which can occur in the singular as
head of an NP whose number for agreement purposes is determined by a smaller NP
embedded within it:

[20] SINGULAR PLURAL

[A lot of mono] was wasted. [A lot of things] were wasted.

[The rest of the meat] is over there. [The rest of the eggs] are over there.

(not possible) [A number of fa ults] were fo und.

The head of the bracketed NP in each case is marked by double underlining. Notice
that each head is singular, but the form of the verb depends on the single-underlined
NP that is complement to the preposition of The meaning of number is such that the
embedded NP must be plural, so the bottom left position in the table can't be filled.

Collective nouns

Nouns such as board, committee, jury, staff, team are collective nouns in that they

denote a collection, or set, of individuals. When they occur in the singular as head

of the subject NP the verb can, especially in BrE, be either singular or plural, though

AmE clearly favours the singular:

[21] SINGULAR VERB

a. The committee has interviewed her.

11 a. The jury is still deliberating.

III a. The board consists entirely of men.

PLURAL VERB

b. %The committee have interviewed her.

b. %The jury are still deliberating.

b. The crew are all over fo rty.

The choice of a plural verb focuses on the individuals that make up the collection,

on the members of the committee or jury or whatever, rather than on the collection

as a unit, the official body that the members constitute.