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Englishnewbie Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

$ and pounds

Hello,

I know it's

$1 million was placed into my account.

Is pounds the same as dollars in this sense?

I mean,

100 pounds of meat was/were consumed in 1 hour.

Is it was or were?

Thank you.
  

Top answer

I'm an English old-timer, and I don't even know. It depends on the context to some extent, but normally I think it's "was" unless there is a very good reason for the plural. People will put it both ways, but the sense of it is that it's the meat that is consumed, not the pounds.

— Anonymous

  • I'm an English old-timer, and I don't even know.
  • It depends on the context to some extent, but normally I think it's "was" unless there is a very good reason for the plural.
  • People will put it both ways, but the sense of it is that it's the meat that is consumed, not the pounds.
  • You have found the line that sepatates the prescriptivists from the descriptivists.
  • There are those who construe grammar rigidly, and they would say that there is no doubt that the subject of the sentence is "pounds," and therefore the verb must be plural.
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1 Answers
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I'm an English old-timer, and I don't even know. It depends on the context to some extent, but normally I think it's "was" unless there is a very good reason for the plural. People will put it both ways, but the sense of it is that it's the meat that is consumed, not the pounds.

You have found the line that sepatates the prescriptivists from the descriptivists. There are those who const
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