Are specific decades singular or plural? Which of the following is grammatically correct?
The '70s was a great period for rock music.
or
The '70s were a great period for rock music.
Please provide references if you have any.
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This has been a popular topic on EL&U. It’s ironic that you mention rock music; see “Led Zeppelin was” vs. “Led Zeppelin were”, Is a band a singular or a collective entity?, Is the usage of “are” correct when referring to a band?, and “Are” vs. “is” for proper nouns that sound plural (e.g., band names). Also Are collective nouns plural or singular?– Scott - Слава УкраїніCommented Jun 20, 2014 at 17:33
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2 Answers
My interpretation would be this (including source).
Rule 8. Use a singular verb with distances, periods of time, sums of money, etc., when considered as a unit.
The '70s is a period of time
Examples: Three miles is too far to walk. Five years is the maximum sentence for that offense. Ten dollars is a high price to pay. BUT Ten dollars (i.e., dollar bills) were scattered on the floor.
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On the other hand, "Five years is ..." could be rephrased as "The maximum sentence ... is ...", in which case it's easy to see why the verb is singular. One might say "Five years was/were spent in constructing the building." I'd be inclined, myself, to use the plural there - though I have no source to back me up. Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 13:54
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If you find a source to demonstrate your example, please make a reference here as well for the clarity of the answer and simply because it helps make the language that little bit more clear and enjoyable. Thank you for your comment!– MnescatCommented Jun 20, 2014 at 14:01
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Nice find. Oddly enough, to me it sounds fine to say "three miles are too far to walk", although I agree with the other examples. (This suggests that the rule should probably hold in all cases.)– SparhawkCommented Jun 24, 2014 at 1:10
My intuition is that it can work either way. If you use "were", then you are treating it as a collection of 10 years. If you use "was", then you are treating it as a single decade. This is similar to how teams and corporations can be singular or plural depending on how you look at them.
On ngrams we can see that both are in use, though the search result is misleading because there are false matches like "The X of the 70s was a good X".
answered Jun 20, 2014 at 13:34
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1@Archa Yes, but it's also the name of the decade. Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 13:45
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2You told that "were" treats as a "collection of 10 years" and "was" a single decade, but, what's the difference? A single decade is a collection of 10 years. Sorry, I really didn't understand. Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 13:48
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A single decade is a single extent of time that happens to be ten years long. A collection of ten years could be any old group of ten years; if you use were to describe a decade you're thinking of it as a collection of ten years that happen to be consecutive years. Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 13:50
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3@GuilhermeOderdenge "one decade" is a singular thing. "10 years" is plural. Compare "That decade felt really long to me" and "Those 10 years felt really long to me". The first is singular (uses that), the second is plural (uses those). You can treat "The 70s" as either one decade or ten years. Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 14:58