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Should the verb in the following sentences be singular or plural?

  • Two cups of sugar [was or were] added to the recipe.

  • Fifty cubic yards of contaminated soil [was or were] excavated.

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JHENLEY
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  • Can you edit your question to include links and quotes from relevant reference materials that you have consulted and tell why you need additional information that isn't there? – jejorda2 Dec 21 '15 at 21:25
  • Singular or plural is not a matter of tense but rather of number. – Brian Donovan Dec 21 '15 at 21:29
  • Recast the sentences in the active voice and the problem disappears. – phoog Dec 21 '15 at 21:49

2 Answers2

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Typically, with units of measure, one uses a singular verb. For example, if you are most interested in a single quantity of sugar, that happens to be two cups, you would say two cups of sugar was added to the recipe. In fact, it might have been half of a 1-quart measure, or it might have been four half-cup measures.

Almost certainly, you are uninterested in whether the fifty cubic yards of earth was added in fifty increments or otherwise.

See, for example https://www.aje.com/en/author-resources/articles/editing-tip-singular-and-plural-verbs-measured-quantities.

Consider also the following sentences:

*Two cups are too much sugar for that recipe!

Two cups is too much sugar for that recipe!

*Fifty cubic yards were a lot more contaminated soil than we anticipated.

Fifty cubic yards was a lot more contaminated soil than we anticipated.

As an aside, you can avoid this by using the active voice, which many style guides prefer when a choice is possible:

The baker added two cups of sugar to the recipe.

The contractor excavated 50 cubic yards of soil.

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phoog
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    and even when the measured quantity is not a mass noun: Two cups of eggs was added. – AmI Dec 21 '15 at 22:30
  • Do I still use a singular verb if cup is not used as the unit of capacity but literally as a cup? E.g. 5 cups of water was/were poured into the container? – clickbait Jun 22 '18 at 06:07
  • @downvote-flagger if there were five cups full of water that were all poured into the container then yes, I would probably use the plural verb. – phoog Jun 22 '18 at 14:14
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Don't let the prepositional phrase (of sugar, of contaminated soil) fool you. The subject-verb agreement depends on the base noun. So you have:

Two cups were added...

Fifty cubic yards were excavated...

In each case, the base noun is plural. The adjectival prepositional phrases that complete the noun phrase are of no import.

For reference, see point 5 at this OWL link.

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Nonnal
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    The most applicable example in your link seems to be five dollars is a lot of money, which contradicts your answer. – phoog Dec 21 '15 at 22:00
  • @phoog Check out the fifth block, starting with: "5. Do not be misled by a phrase that comes between the subject and the verb. The verb agrees with the subject, not with a noun or pronoun in the phrase." – Nonnal Dec 21 '15 at 22:07
  • But none of the examples demonstrates a unit of measure, which is an exception to that rule. For example, fifty gallons is a lot of water. – phoog Dec 21 '15 at 22:18
  • @phoog Do you disagree with my answer that the plural forms are correct in this instance? Units of measure can constitute an exception, but those examples are structurally distinct. – Nonnal Dec 21 '15 at 22:28
  • I do disagree with your answer. See mine for more detail. – phoog Dec 21 '15 at 22:40