{"id":1937,"date":"2015-05-19T14:38:44","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T20:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1937"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:58:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:58:59","slug":"what-kind-of-rule-is-usually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/effective-writing\/what-kind-of-rule-is-usually\/","title":{"rendered":"What Kind of Rule Is Usually<\/em>?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A thought-provoking inquiry showed up recently in our inbox:<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t decide which verb is correct in sentences like the following. Would I write There are three kilograms of flour in the kitchen<\/em> or There is three kilograms of flour in the kitchen<\/em>? Two meters of fabric is here<\/em> or Two meters of fabric are here<\/em>?<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

A staff member submitted this response:<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

A quantity of weight or measure is singular when considered as a unit. Therefore, write There is three kilograms of flour<\/em> and Two meters of fabric is here<\/em>.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

That solution did not sit well with everybody. Both \u201ccorrect\u201d sentences sounded too bizarre to recommend.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

True, amounts and measurements often take singular verbs. We say, \u201cHere is that five dollars I owe you,\u201d not \u201cHere are those five dollars I owe you.\u201d A Dickensian excerpt we found online gets to the crux of the matter: \u201cSeven bright pennies were exposed on the grubby palm, but seven pennies was not enough for a candy bar.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

We went to several websites, and noticed some hedging: \u201cWords expressing periods of time, weights, measurements, and amounts of money usually take a singular verb,\u201d said one site. Another said \u201cthere does not appear to be universal agreement about this topic.\u201d In other words, this is a rule, but only \u201cusually.\u201d (We also saw a lot of \u201cgenerally\u201d and \u201csometimes.\u201d)<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

The National Geographic Style Manual<\/em> recommended\u00a0ten gallons is enough<\/em>, but also ten dishfuls were slowly doled out<\/em>. The manual preferred ten gallons<\/em> is\u00a0<\/em>because ten gallons<\/em> is \u201cconsidered as a mass\u201d\u2014but many would see the ten dishfuls as a unit also.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Other sites were similarly murky. One recommended\u00a0six months is needed to complete the assignment <\/em>but also endorsed six months have passed since the assignment<\/em>. Why not has passed<\/em>, as in [a period of<\/em>]\u00a0six months has passed<\/em>? Another approved both ten dollars is the entry fee<\/em> and ten dollars<\/em> were tucked in the mattress<\/em>.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

When a \u201crule\u201d is this subjective, maybe it should be downgraded to \u201cguideline.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Back to the original problem\u2014There is three kilograms of flour<\/em> and Two meters of fabric is here<\/em> may be technically correct, but they sound terrible. The sensible solution is to recast the sentences: Three kilograms of flour can be found in the kitchen<\/em>. I have two meters of fabric here<\/em>.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

There\u2019s everything to gain and nothing to lose by rewriting ghastly sentences, even if they happen to be grammatical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A thought-provoking inquiry showed up recently in our inbox: I can\u2019t decide which verb is correct in sentences like the following. Would I write There are three kilograms of flour in the kitchen or There is three kilograms of flour in the kitchen? Two meters of fabric is here or Two meters of fabric are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,19,26,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-numbers","category-singular-vs-plural","category-subject-and-verb-agreement"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}