Learn English – Which to be verb do you use when listing items

agreementverbs

I'm confused about what "to be verb" to use when you create a list of items.

I mean when you talk about 3 or 4 items. What "to be verb" goes after "how much"? I read that "how much" always goes with uncountable nouns. So I would use "is" instead of "are"?

For example:

  • How much is a dictionary, a stapler, and three pairs of scissors?
  • How much are a dictionary, a stapler, and three pairs of scissors?

Does it have to do with proximity of the countable noun or uncountable noun?

Best Answer

You ask: Proximity. I assume you mean proximity determines conjugation, and I would say stylistically yes, grammatically no. And some would say, stylistically, no, too.

That unit of speech is called a phrase, specifically a noun phrase, or a complex noun phrase. The verb "to be" is, in English, conjugated to the subject of the sentence. So if that phrase falls in the predicate, then is depends on the subject.

Example :)

We are angry, tired, and violent.

Compare:

He is angry, tired, and violent.

In your example, you could argue that you are omitting "the (total) price (of)," so the fully-formed noun phrase could be:

"How much is the total price of a dictionary, a stapler, and three pairs of scissors?

Colloquially, one would replace this jumble of words with the pronoun it, i.e.:

How much is it?

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