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I'm not sure which of these is more correct.

Your 1 hour is up.

This is easy. Singular.

Your 5 minutes are up

Again, simple enough. Plural.

Your 1 hour and 6 minutes is up.
Your 3 hours and 1 minute are up.

Should the plural be based on the hours or minutes?

RegDwigнt
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roryok
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    “Your 66 minutes are up”? Or “Your allotted time slot of 1 hour and 6 minutes is up”? The simple fact that both the singular and the plural in your example sounds equally right and wrong is a good indication that avoiding the entire construction would be a prudent strategy. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 13 '14 at 15:34
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    "Your time is up." – anongoodnurse Feb 13 '14 at 15:37
  • Thanks Susan. In the context, I need to state the amount of time. – roryok Feb 13 '14 at 15:55
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    Your last 3 examples can use either singular or plural verb. It depends on notional concord. The issue involves measure phrases and singular override. For a more detailed answer, please refer to my "answer post". – F.E. Feb 13 '14 at 21:04
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    I disagree with the "duplicate" closevote. That question will never address the issue in this one, which is the pluralization of complex measurements. – MetaEd Feb 14 '14 at 19:02
  • @MetaEd 'The the [time etc] interval is regarded as a unitary whole' (owtte) explanation given there covers this. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 22 '16 at 10:06

5 Answers5

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According to Mary Nell Sorensen, instructor for the University of Washington International and English Language Programs, a set of rules on agreement are set out nicely here. (And for a wider range of helpful charts, look here.)

According to this chart, there are two rules that are applicable. The first one is specific:

Plural unit words of distance, money, and time. take a singular verb

Examples:

300 miles is a long ways to go on a bicycle. (distance)

Two hundred dollars seems a lot to spend on a dress. (money)

Fifteen years is a long time to spend in jail. (time)

And a more general rule for compound subjects would be this:

Subjects joined by and are nearly always plural

Exception: If the parts of the subject are considered a unit, you may treat the subject as singular.

Thus, for your compound subject of a unit of time (X hours and Y minutes), it should be considered to be singular.

Community
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Canis Lupus
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For your specific examples -- except for the 1st one -- both the singular and the plural verb versions are acceptable. It depends on the speaker's/writer's intent.

When the subject is a type of measure phrase (which your examples are), then a singular override is usually optional.

Often the verb will be singular, since subjects that are a type of measure phrase are often treated as notionally singular by the speaker/writer. But the verb can be plural if the subject measure phrase is being treated notionally plural.

But, when a measure phrase is subject, be aware that the singular override is obligatory when the predicative complement is a singular noun phrase. E.g. "Twenty dollars seems a ridiculous amount to pay to go to the movies".

Reference: page 504, "Measure phrases", in the 2002 reference grammar by Huddleston and Pullum et al., The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

ASIDE: There's nothing wrong with the constructions of your examples, so use them if you like them. :)

F.E.
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In the above example : 'Your one hour and six minutes' is taken as a time span, so it should be treated as a singular.

If it is taken in plural sense it should be formed like 'your 66 minutes are up'(minutes are countable).

kashminder
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  • Can you think of a situation where it makes sense to treat the minutes as discrete? – Edwin Ashworth Feb 13 '14 at 16:59
  • example: Minimum six minutes are required to complete the lap. – kashminder Feb 13 '14 at 17:02
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    Few would treat that as discrete. You can have a minimum pressure, length, temperature which aren't – 'minimun' doesn't pre-modify solely count nouns. There is the situation, admittedly, where you are given a minute to collect as much litter as you can say, then must go and weigh it. (Winner gets a gold star!) If you have 6 'goes', you might well be told 'Six minutes are what each pupil gets.' – Edwin Ashworth Feb 13 '14 at 17:16
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it makes a prudent choice to consider the subject as singular. E.g. Ten Pounds is heavier than you think/your 1 hour 6 minutes is up Reference: http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/category/singular-vs-plural/

Manish
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"If the subject includes singular and plural items, the verb agrees with the item closest to the verb."

Correct answer: Your 1 hour 6 minutes are up.

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

Drew
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    Exception: If the parts of the subject are considered a unit, you may treat the subject as singular. -- 'Your time is up.' = 'Your one hour and three minutes is up.' would you like to change your choice to door number 2 or door number 3? – Canis Lupus Feb 13 '14 at 15:38
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    Your cite actually says the opposite: plural amounts of time take the singular: Fifteen years is a long time to spend in jail. (time). Also the same cite says if a plural or compound forms a unit, it takes the singular: Crackers and cheese is my favorite snack. – bib Feb 13 '14 at 15:39
  • @Drew - welcome to ELU. You made a good effort by aanswering with a citation of an authoritative reference. But your answer conflicts with your source. Fix your answer, and the downvotes should be retracted. – Canis Lupus Feb 13 '14 at 15:47
  • @Jim - Fix your comment and I'll fix my answer. – Drew Feb 13 '14 at 15:49
  • @bib Fifteen years is a long time in this instance, the singular relates to the period of fifteen years. One must imagine that the full sentence is *a period of* fifteen years is a long time. Consider the sentence Fifteen years have passed since then. No-one would every try to pass off Fifteen years has passed as correct, but that would be using the singular. – roryok Feb 13 '14 at 15:53
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    @roryok Your [period of] 1 hour 6 minutes is up. I have no problem with Fifteen years has passed .... – bib Feb 13 '14 at 16:00
  • Fifteen years has passed... Now that I read it back again it doesn't seem so bad. Still no closer to a definitive answer. – roryok Feb 13 '14 at 16:10
  • @Jim The classic Monty Hall problem? – Edwin Ashworth Feb 13 '14 at 16:57
  • His odds would have been better if he had accepted my offer, don't you think? Some people are stubborn, though. They usually go home with the goat. – Canis Lupus Feb 13 '14 at 16:58
  • I knew a gal went home with Monty Hall. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 13 '14 at 17:21