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When can three hours or three thousand pounds be considered singular and plural ?

e.g. Three hours ( is - are ) a long period to wait for you.

e.g. Three thousand pounds ( was - were ) collected for charity last week.

Gamal
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  • When the emphasis is on the whole collective thing itself, I'd use singular; conversely when meaning each individual thing I'd use plural eg: "The sum of three thousand pounds was collected . . ." "Three thousand pound coins were collected . . . " – peterG Mar 29 '15 at 16:22

1 Answers1

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Quantities or measurements of time, money, distance, weight usually take singular verbs. That is, they are regarded as one unit.

Example:

Five hundred dollars is too much to pay.

See here and here.

Mike
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