Three hours ( or three thousand pounds ) is or are? [duplicate]

Question

When can three hours or three thousand pounds be considered singular and plural ?

e.g. Three hours ( is - are ) a long period to wait for you.

e.g. Three thousand pounds ( was - were ) collected for charity last week.

When the emphasis is on the whole collective thing itself, I'd use singular; conversely when meaning each individual thing I'd use plural eg: "The sum of three thousand pounds was collected . . ." "Three thousand pound coins were collected . . . " — peterG, Commented Mar 29, 2015 at 16:22

Mike · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-30 01:24:47Z

1

Quantities or measurements of time, money, distance, weight usually take singular verbs. That is, they are regarded as one unit.

Example:

Five hundred dollars is too much to pay.

See here and here.

answered Mar 30, 2015 at 1:24

Mike

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