Furniture and equipment costs ( or cost ) ....?

Status
Not open for further replies.

duiter

Member
Joined
May 22, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Indonesian
Home Country
Malaysia
Current Location
Indonesia
Dear teachers,

When two or more uncountable nouns combined together, do I have to use singular or plural form of verb ?

Furniture and equipment costs 1 million of the budget

Furniture and equipment cost 1 million of the budget


Thanks
 

MartinEnglish

Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
I'd say cost - two different (albeit uncountable) things, thus plural.

In the same way that I'd say "love and happiness are important" not "love and happiness is important".

But someone please correct me if I'm wrong!
 

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
The problem here is '1 million of the budget'.

What do you mean by that?

And don't forget the full stop at the end.

Rover
 

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Are there two items on the budget, "furniture" and "equipment" that together total 1 million?

Or is there one item called "furniture and equipment"?

"Equipment repair and maintenance" is probably one budget item

"Nuclear warheads and school lunches" are hopefully two different items.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top