Two years is a long time

0You're talking about a grouping of years, a period, thus "is." 02br
00Both is/are for the 2nd, depending on whether you're talking about them as a group or not. 0-

0Thanks, Marius. Yes, I know it's because we are talking about a period. What I wanted to know is whether there is a name for this. Can we call "two years" a collective noun? It doesn't look like a collective noun because collective nouns do not have singular/plural forms, e.g. the audience, the cabinet.02br
00For the second one, the meaning of the sentence is pretty clear. I do

0Hi Pter02br
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01b00Audience02b00 and 01b00cabinet 02b00are countable nouns.0-

0I believe they are countable nouns only if we are talking about multiple audiences or cabinets, otherwise, they are called collective nouns that can be either plural or singluar depending on the context. No?02br
02br
00My question is I have never seen anybody calling "two years" or "four men" collective nouns. 0-

1i00The period of02i00 two years01i00 02i00is long enough, or too long. You use the singular to refer to a "chunk" of something, whether it's time, distance, etc.02br
02br
01i00A group that consists of02i00 four men is more than enough manpower.02br
02br
00The parts in italics are understood to

1blockquote

01cite10Pter12cite10I believe they are countable nouns only if we are talking about multiple audiences or cabinets, otherwise, they are called collective nouns that can be either plural or singluar depending on the context. No?12br
12br
10 ... 11b10they are called collective nouns that can be either plural or sin

0<<>> but just because they can 00[be]00 used in the singular or plural01b00,02b00 depending on context01b00,02b00 doesn't make them uncountable nouns. 0-

0Hi YL, I am not saying they are uncountabe nouns. I said they are collective nouns.02br
00Thanks GG. I understand the reason why the singular is used, but just don't know if there is a grammatical term for this. 0-

0 01blockquote

01cite10Pter12cite10if there is a grammatical term for this.12blockquote

10Hi, I think such an 01i00omitting 02i00itself can be a grammatical term. It's just my opinion, Pter. 0-

0How about the following:02br
001. How many is too many?02br
002. How many are too many? 0-