The Incoherence Between Subjects and Verbs in Some Cases

Question

Hello.I read these sentances below in some TOEFL and TOEIC preparation books. I would truly appreciate it if someone can explain the incoherence between subjects and verbs in these cases.Case 1: "I'm so happy to see you again. Three weeks is a long time."Case 2: "I think twice a week is enough." "Two times is hardly enough."Case 3: "How many more stops is it until New York?" "That's another three stops down the line."Thank you.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

The problem is that there is really no incoherence; those are all very common native utterances. Even a real TOEFL/TOEIC test would not include these as ungrammatical. However, this is what your prep book wants you to see:

Case 1: "I'm so happy to see you again. Three weeks are a long time."

Case 2: "I think twice a week is enough." "Two times are hardly enough."

Case 3: "How many more stops are there until New York?" "There are another three stops down the line."

Keep in mind that although the strict grammatical number of subject and verb are not in concord, native speakers often, even normally, conceive of the plural nouns as singular quantities.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you very much for your kind reply.

I see your point. Grammatical rules do not necessarily apply to native speakers. That is exactly where the difficulty is for non-native speakers to attain native speaking level. Regarding cases, I guess I should just deal with them by memorizing them.

However, are there any other similar cases where native speakers feel like matching plural nouns with singular verbs?

By the way, those sentences I quoted previously with native utterances are exactly how the prep books present them. I quoted them directly from the listening comprehension text. In other words, these native utterances are considerd correct in these prep books. That is why I feel like looking into them further.

Mister Micawber · Answer

However, are there any other similar cases where native speakers feel like matching plural nouns with singular verbs? -- Some other instances:

The team is eager to win.

My family is moving to Bangkok.

Six cans of beer always makes me drunk.

Joe Huang · Answer

"Subjects that stand for definable units of money, measurement, time, organization, food and medical problems always take singular verbs."

(http://www.grammaruntied.com/blog/?p=319 )

"Collective nouns may take either a singular or plural verb depending on the meaning."

(http://faculty.washington.edu/marynell/grammar/agreement.html )

The Incoherence Between Subjects and Verbs in Some Cases

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