What I want is/are a calculator and an electronic dictionary.

[Matthew Wai]

https://www.englishforums.com/English/IsOrAre/bgzmxp/post.htm
On the above forum, a teacher told me that 'are' was preferable in 'What I want are two apples and two bananas'.

http://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/340600179/m/8402937427
On the above forum, I found this sentence: 'What I want is a calculator and an electronic dictionary'.

Should 'are' be used instead of 'is' above?

 

[Matthew Wai]

1. What I want are two apples and a banana.
2. What I want is an apple and a banana.

Are both correct?

 

[J&K Tutoring]

The verb should agree with the subject (what):

1a. What I want is two apples. Two apples are what I want.

1b. What I want is a banana. A banana is what I want.

 

[Matthew Wai]

How about the following?
What I want is/are a banana and two apples.

 

[emsr2d2]

Part of the reason that it's not necessarily clear how this works is that native speakers don't frequently start a sentence with "What I want is/are ..." If they're answering the question "What do you want?", they're more likely to simply say "I want ..." followed by the name of the item(s) or just list the items.

What do you want?
I want a banana/I want a banana and two apples/I want a calculator, three slide rules and a compass.

What do you want?
A banana/A banana and two apples/A calculator, three slide rules and a compass.

 

[Matthew Wai]

What I want is two apples.

If so, should 'is' be used instead of 'are' below?

https://www.englishforums.com/English/IsOrAre/bgzmxp/post.htm
On the above forum, a teacher told me that 'are' was preferable in 'What I want are two apples and two bananas'.

 

[J&K Tutoring]

Yes, and further down someone else posted this: "How many times are you going to ask this question in one form or another, Matthew?"

 

[Tdol]

Singular and plural are difficult issues, and there are differences between the variants. It doesn't all come down to mathematics. You will find differences of opinion on these issues.