Minutes

[jack]

Are both of these correct? If so, which one is formally correct? Do they both have the same meaning?
1. There are twenty minutes left in this game.
2. There is twenty minutes left in this game.

Thanks.

[Mister Micawber]

'There are twenty minutes left in this game' is correct; the second has the same meaning but bad grammar.

[jack]

the second has the same meaning but bad grammar.

These are okay?
1. There is $150 on the table. ($150 Total)
2. There are $150 on the table. (There are 150 one dollar coins?)

3. There is 20 minutes left in the game. (#1 is okay, but this is not? It doesn't work with time? Only money?)

Thanks.

[Mister Micawber]

'There is/are $150 on the table'. It's not time vs money, Jack-- it is unitary concept vs multiplicity concept. If the speaker envisions the lump sum of money, then the uses singular; if he is counting his pennies, he uses plural. Both ways happen to work well with your money example, where they don't both work well with your 20-minute example.

Twenty dollars is a lot of money to pay for a magazine. (a price)
There are twenty dollars in my wallet. (counting them)

The 20 minutes are too obviously a counted number to use the singular comfortably. However, someone will be along in a moment to remind us that natural speech often has us saying 'there's' with either a singular or plural noun.

There's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.

[jack]

There are twenty dollars in my wallet. (counting them)

1. There is twenty dollars in my wallet. (So this is wrong?)