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Which statement is correct?

Alcohol, drug abuse and work equipment is a lethal mix.

or

Alcohol, drug abuse and work equipment are a lethal mix.

Colin Thompson-Broadley
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2 Answers2

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Either version could be grammatically correct as a treatment of a list of nouns, but I am going to suggest the latter is preferable for the most natural meaning in this case.

Alcohol, drug abuse and work equipment is a lethal mix.

This takes the set of components as a single group and makes it the subject.

Alcohol, drug abuse and work equipment are a lethal mix.

This cognizes each component separately.

Here's two examples of where the group should be singular:

Tomato juice, vodka, Worcestershire sauce, and celery is a bloody mary.

A fuselage, two wings, and some engines is an airplane.

In this case, we could make the sentence clearer by substituting is the definition of or makes up. The nouns in our subject compose a clause taken to be a single thing. I think these sentences generally sound more natural if you express the term first.

Conversely, I take it that we should prefer to view them separately when we see distinct types of agents:

Jim and Bob are a dangerous combination at any party.

Bleach and ammonia are dangerous mixture.

In this case, I take it that we want to emphasize the components. And this is the case in your question as well.

Community
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virmaior
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The second statement is correct - the plural form of the verb to be. There is more than item in the lethal mix. e.g. Use of is:

Drug abuse is potentially lethal.

Use of are:

Alcohol and drug abuse are potentially lethal.
suspectus
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    You've changed the OP's wording. Your two sentences are absolutely correct, but there's nothing wrong with using is with the original wording. – Peter Shor Mar 22 '14 at 15:21