Sentence Meaning

[jack]

What do these mean?
1. Chasing him and following him are not good ideas.
2. Chasing him and following him are not a good idea.
3. Chasing him and following him is not a good idea.

Thanks.

[Mister Micawber]

They all mean the same, Jack-- 'you shouldn't pursue him'. They are awful sentences, however, because 'chase' and 'follow' are so redundant that there is no hope of sorting out whether the verb and object are better as singular or plural forms.

[Dany]

Hello

I think that "is/are" refers to "idea/ideas". That's why I would say, that the second sentence is not correct. The first sentence could be right, but the third sentence sounds more correctly to me, however.

Kind regards,
Dany

[HCaulfield]

I think this is complicated. I don't concur in that is/are refer to idea/s, since that's not the subject of the sentence, but "chasing him and following him" is. I can't think of a rule for sentences of this kind, as I've heard every possible combination of is/are with idea/s (except is and ideas).

1."chasing him and following him are not good ideas" (Neither one nor the other)
2."chasing him and following him are not a good idea" (the both of them)
3."chasing him and following him is not a good idea" (the both of them)

These don't make much sense because to chase and to follow mean the same. But with different verbs, it makes sense.

1. chasing and following as alternatives.
2. chasing and following as separate things, both of them happening.
3. The concept of chasing and following.

Replace following with kidnapping...

[jack]

What do these mean?
1. Your hand and eye coordination is very good.
2. Your hand and eye coordination are very good.

Does it matter if it is viewed as one single event or two separate events? When is it important to make it as one even or two separate events?

Thanks.

[HCaulfield]

Hand and eye coordination is the ability to take actually "measure" through sight and move your hands accordingly in distance, width, etc. To use are, it is hand and eye coordinations and you are referring to hand coordination (i.e. one hand with the other) and eye coordination (I have no idea what that could be) separately.