February 26, 2017

Homework Help: English grammar

Posted by John on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 6:38am.

Use a singular verb with sums of money or periods of time.

Ex) Ten dollars _____ a high price to pay.

Ten dollar is a sum of money, so you have to use a singular verb. In this case, the subject acts as a unit.

I'll give you another example.

ex) Ten years is a long time.

In this sentence 'ten years' is a period of time. When a subject is a period of time, you have to use a singular verb though the subject has a plural form.

Look at the exception.

ex) Ten years have passed since he died.

In this case, you should use a plural auxiliary verb, 'have' because ten years indicates the process of time.

Hello. Good to see you again.
Is my explanation of grammatical points correct? If I didn't explain well, would you correct them?

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