Learn English – Mixing plural and singular list items with a single verb

grammatical-numberor-northere-is

A friend wants to write,

There is no hardware to purchase, no additional software to install and no key fobs to worry about.

This is awkward because the verb "is" doesn't match up with the third item, which is plural and demands "There are" as the subject. However,

There is no hardware to purchase, no additional software to install and there are no key fobs to worry about.

sounds awkward as well.

Is there a good workaround for this problem where some list items are singular and some are plural, so they don't share a common verb?

Best Answer

With compound antecedents connected by or or nor, make the pronoun agree with the nearer antecedent.

If one of the antecedents is singular and the other is plural, put the plural one last to avoid awkwardness.

--Hacker, Rules for Writers

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