What they need are...

HUBLOTShould it be "What they need is..."?

Strictly speaking, yes, although natives often use a plural verb in such cases.

It is possible to construe "listeners" as singular, but let's face it—it's plural. In the absence of an irrefutable reason to defy the grammar, stick with it. Use "are".

enoonIt is possible to construe "listeners" as singular, but let's face it—it's plural.

Not to draw too much attention to the shy elephant in the room, but isn’t the subject, what they need, singular? It’s subject-verb agreement, not predicate-verb agreement.

"What" is the subject, a pronoun whose referent is the plural "listeners". Listeners are what they need.

enoon"What" is the subject

No, it’s the direct object of the verb need in the noun clause what they need.

It's both. If you can agree that it's a pronoun, what would you say is its referent?

Your conception would have us saying "What they want is three bananas, seven lemons and twelve apples."

enoonIf you can agree that it's a pronoun, what would you say is its referent?

That’s not really relevant here. A word can’t function as both subject and object in the same sentence.

You might Google “noun clauses”.

enoon"What they want is three bananas, seven lemons and twelve apples."

That sounds fine to me.

You might Google "agreement" and "pronoun". Don't forget to check Wikipedia.

What we want is ways to communicate. If that also sounds fine, then we're at an impasse.

I’ve found these discussions:

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/92050/is-this-an-inversion-if-so-why-would-you-use-an-inversion-in-this-case



It seems there isn’t much agreement on this.