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When writing about specific quantities, should the verb reflect a singular or a plural value? Do abbreviations vs. spelled-out words make any difference?
I took 2 ml of water, which was/were then added...
Six microliters of protein solution was/were placed in a centrifuge...
These constructions involve what are called "mass nouns" (or something comparable). Although they refer to more than one 'thing' (e.g., more than one milliliter of water), they treat these things as a single unit.
Mass nouns take singular verbs - not plural. As do measures of the referents:
Units of measure are treated as collective nouns, taking a singular verb.
- For each patient, 10 mL of whole blood was collected in a clot tube.
[Penn State: Effective Technical Writing]
Take your first example:
I took 2 ml of water, which was/were then added...
The water, despite being more than one milliliter, was added at the same time, as a single unit. It would not be helpful (semantically or grammatically) to think of each milliliter of water as being added separately. Instead, treat the mass noun as the group it is, and use the singular.
Use singular verbs with units. This usage is so because the measurement results in a quantity of a substance, e.g., 2 litres (better written as 2 L) is a quantity of water with the water still being a non-count noun. To avoid this problem, use the measured quantity as the object of verb as illustrated below:
a. Add 2 L of water and stir. b. Tie 10 m of the rope around the neck of the animal and tether it.
Never write the word name of a unit of measure after a number to represent the result of measurement, e.g., 5 metres is incorrect. Wrte 5 m. However, when used as an adjective, both the symbol and word name are correct, e.g., 5 km journey and 5-kilometre journey. Do not insert a hyphen when the unit symbol is used.
Like other nouns, if the number is exactly 1, then the unit should be singular. Otherwise, it will be plural.
So in your examples, were is correct.
However in the following case
1L of solvent was utilized.
was is correct since it's a single liter.
Whether count (mass) nouns take singular or plural noun differs in both context and whether it’s e.g. British or American English. Brits like to think of most count nouns as plural entities and would therefore say:
The staff have been very productive this month.
In contrast, Americans prefer:
The staff has been very productive this month.
However, in this instance, scientific style becomes the key. In scientific texts, ‘amounts’ are taken to be singular count nouns, even in the UK. For example:
50 litres/liters is a lot of water.
