Are the following two sentences correct, considering S-V agreement?
All she has are a house, a car and a job.
All she has is a house, a car and a job.
I tend to think the first makes more sense as the items mentioned together form a plural that requires a plural verb. This is even clearer if we reverse the order of the first sentence as follows:
A house, a car and a job are all she has.
However, for some reason, my mind still accepts is. Maybe because it can still regard all as a single entity or a group of things taken together.
Best Answer
Both sentences are correct. It is sometimes very effective to use all in a cleft structure if you want to focus on one particular thing (meaning the only thing,everything, nothing more). All is a pronoun in these sentences. All (that) I +verb is actually an object in the front position and the real subject is delayed . We find it after be. The traditional agreement (a singular noun agrees with a singular and a plural noun with a plural verb form ) is valid. But when all is a direct object we can use either a single or a plural verb after the clause. We can consider what "is left" as an entity.The traditional agreement is used more often.
Every other use requires a singular verb.