In Hoobastank's The Reason, a lyric is
And the Reason is you...
Is that sentence (grammatically) correct? I'm asking because, you know... You are the reason.
Specifically, should "is" in the quote agree instead with "you" (i.e. "the reason are you")?
Answered.
Yes, the use of "is" in this quotation is grammatically correct. Compare the well-known example "It is I/me", where people argue about whether to use "I" or "me", but never about whether to use "is" or "am". A verb agrees with its subject: the subject here is "the reason", which is singular. In modern English, only pronouns (like I, you, or in relative clauses who) can trigger first-person or second-person agreement on an associated verb. Because "the reason" is not a pronoun, it has to trigger third-person agreement. So it is correct to use the third-person singular form.
