I always get confused about how to build sentences like these:
- What is their function?
- What is their functions?
- What are their functions?
- What are their function?
I think the last one sounds weird. Which one is correct, and why?
Learn English – Plural usage of “function”
grammatical-numbersubject-verb-agreement
Related Solutions
What you have here is an ellipsis. The full sentence is:
From one gift come many [gifts].
Gifts is plural, and so is the verb. It's not the one gift that comes; it's many gifts that come from it.
Conversely, if it were "from one gift comes another [gift]", or "from one gift comes one more [gift]", or something like that, you'd use the singular.
Two general hints to help you recognize such things in the future:
- many is a sure sign that you're looking at, or should be looking for, something plural
- from is a sure sign that you're not looking at the nominative case, and so you're likely not looking at the subject of a clause (it's "he does", not "from him does", nor "from him do")
Whilst a dictionary search shows that the word is singular but plural in form, it is most commonly used (in my experience) with a verb in singular form.
Math(ematic)s is my least favourite subject.
Math(ematic)s is really hard.
This Ngram viewer helps:
EDIT: As @Araucaria points out, the "mathematics are" examples in the Ngram above are not really relevant. See his comment below.
Best Answer
With What questions, the verb must have the same number as the following noun or noun phrase, so the two correct versions are the first and the third:
Think about the answer you will get—the question must use the same verb:
What may be confusing you is the plural their, which implies that you are asking about the function or functions of multiple things. Which of these two questions you ask will depend on the context:
Likewise, you may use these same to forms with just a single thing: