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Here's a quote from the TV show Silicon Valley

Yeah, but that 10 minutes is just incredible.

I think I've also heard someone somewhere said something to the effect of "5 minutes is a long time." "10 minutes" and "5 minutes" are evidently plural given the final -s, and yet apparently they can be used as though the were singular.

Is this strictly an amount/quantity-phrase thing? The examples I can recall are about time, so does this singular usage apply to other types of amount or quantity? For example:

10 people sounds(?) like a lot.

5 kilograms seems(?) heavy.

That(?) last 5 meters was(?) really tough.

Vun-Hugh Vaw
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    It essentially comes down to the fact that the numbers/amounts or quantity involved are considered as a singular unit or a plural entity. – user 66974 Mar 05 '23 at 14:03
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    5 minutes and 10 minutes are common bin sizes for time periods. These bins are treated as singular most of the time. Note that this only works for one continuous time period. If an actor appeared in several scenes for a total of five minutes, you would say "but those 5 minutes were just incredible." Also, with unitful measurements, you can define any bin you like and then treat it as singular later. The course worked out to be 0.78 miles, which is a funny distance for a foot race." Any single measurement is normally treated as a singular item. – Phil Sweet Mar 05 '23 at 14:26

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