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Whenever I recite recipes or measurements in my head, the quantity of units is usually plural, but I find myself using singular verbs. For instance, "three cups of butter yields 12 batches" or "when measuring speed, five people gives a 20% increase." I figured that since three cups is obviously plural, it should be "three cups of butter yield 12 batches" and "when measuring speed, five people give a 20% increase." But that just doesn't sound right at all, to my ears at least.
This might also just be a poor understanding of English on my part, since I didn't grow up with fluent English speaker, but I'm certain that I've heard other people (including my grammar puritan English teacher) talk like this before.

Barmar
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Paulemic
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1 Answers1

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These phrases are treated as collective nouns, which get singular verbs. If you use a plural verb, it gives the impression that each item in the collective is acting individually. For instance

Five people give a 20% tip.

means that each person gave a 20% tip, not that the group of people gave a single 20% tip.

Barmar
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  • Absolutely, but if you are talking about countable ingredients then the verb should be plural. For instance "Four eggs make two omelettes" or even "A dozen eggs make six omelettes". In the latter case 'A dozen' is a number, not a collective noun. – BoldBen May 30 '21 at 04:25
  • @BoldBen Notional agreement is still available in most cases. "A dozen chillies is not too much.' The universal grinder principle. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 28 '24 at 16:37