[Grammar] Is or are?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Jamgirl

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2006
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
I am in a pickle about this. Do we say:

'Your knowledge and experience is invaluable'
or
'Your knowledge and experience are invaluable'.

To my ear, 'is' sounds better. Logically though, should it be 'are' because there are two things in the sentence?

If it is 'is', can someone explain why?

Thanks
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
'Your knowledge and experience is invaluable'
or
'Your knowledge and experience are invaluable'.
Only 'are' is correct.

I think it is possible that some speakers, with a mental picture of 'combination of knowledge and experience' might use 'is', and I also feel that many listeners would not notice anything unusual.

It seems unacceptable to me in writing.
 

Jamgirl

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2006
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
Only 'are' is correct.

I think it is possible that some speakers, with a mental picture of 'combination of knowledge and experience' might use 'is', and I also feel that many listeners would not notice anything unusual.

It seems unacceptable to me in writing.

:-D Thank you for that. I knew logically it had to be 'are' and many arguments here took place about whether you could group the 2 things (knowledge and experience) together to consider it as 1 thing, and use 'is'. I'll have to let my colleagues know that it is 'are'.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top