Learn English – Does singular or plural verb goes with plural nouns like trousers, glasses, scissors, binoculars and many more

plural-formssingular-vs-pluralsubject-verb-agreementverbs

  1. My glasses (was/were) lying on the table.
  2. My trousers (is/are) torn.
  3. (This/These) binoculars (was/were) gifted to me.

I know they're in plural form, but plural nouns such as rickets, measles are disease names, but they take singular verb.

Best Answer

I'm going to shamelessly repurpose the comments to answer this question:

(FumbleFingers) Some words, such as trousers, glasses, scissors, are semantically singular, but syntactically plural. Others, such as rickets and measles, are semantically and syntactically singular. I suspect you may just have to learn these on a case-by-case basis. But many of the first group can be identified because they're often used in expressions like a pair of [glasses, trousers, scissors]. So your sentences should be:

My glasses were lying on the table

My trousers are torn

These binoculars were gifted to me

Side note:

(rjpond) "Measles" (and other diseases) can be singular or plural. The OED says "usually" singular. Collins says "singular or plural". It's easy to find recent examples of it taking the plural. E.g. Leslie DeLong & Nancy Buckhart, General and Oral Pathology for the Dental Hygienist (2007): "German measles are mostly commonly found in children or adults who have not been vaccinated or exposed...".

Side note #2: FumbleFingers says that "these binoculars were given to me" is more common than "these binoculars were gifted to me". I actually prefer to use "to gift" as a verb where appropriate, so it's likely just personal choice.

Related Topic