Which one is correct : is or are?

Question

Is one of the phrases below grammatically correct and the other wrong?
A Chinese friend asked me this question and all I could say was both sounded ok, and that the second was a little easier to say.

Caring for life and safeguarding your home are our responsibility forever.
Caring for life and safeguarding your home is our responsibility forever.

Thanks !!

Answer 1

To match with "responsibility" you have to consider the compound subject as a unit. Therefore "is" is correct.

You need the subject to agree with the verb.

If it were "are", then the sentence should be:
Caring for life and safeguarding your home are our *responsibilities* forever.

The correct sentence is:
Caring for life and safeguarding your home *is* our *responsibility* forever.

The compound subject in this sentence is governed by a sense of unity and by notional agreement, so it takes a singular verb.

Here are some other examples:
My name and address is printed on the box.
His colleague and friend (one person) deserves equal credit.

This sense of unity is not simply a stylistic flourish. Using a singular or plural verb changes the meaning of the sentence.

Eating garlic and drinking red wine sometimes gives me a headache means that the combination of garlic and red wine can cause a headache. With a plural verb (give), the sentence implies that garlic and red wine act separately; either can bring a headache.

In your sentence, the speaker is taking responsibility for your life (by) safeguarding your home, which makes it a single subject.

Answer 2

NEITHER

Here is one way of saying it correctly:

"Caring for life and safeguarding you home ARE our responsibilitIES forever."

Caring for life is a different quality and thing than safeguarding your home since life is an animated quality and a home is inanimate. Since life and home are distinct, they ARE plural responsibilitIES.

You can use the singular if the two items are essentially the same thing or qualities of the same person, so you could rewrite the sentence in a way where the singular would be correct:

"Caring for your family and safeguarding your home is our responsiblity forever."

This is correct because the stewardship of hearth and kin is the single quality that is the subject of this sentence, making a single verb ("is") appropriate.

Answer 3

Is.

Caring for life IS our responsibility. Safeguarding your home IS our responsibility.

Put 'em together, and you get...Caring for life and safeguarding your home IS our responsibility forever. There is actually an educational explanation for this, but from where I'm sitting it's 2 am, and I don't feel like getting into it.

Answer 4

ARE bcoz u have 2 things -

1)Caring for life
2)safeguarding your home

Answer 5

Caring for life and safeguarding your home are our responsibilities forever.

The sentence mentions two resposibilities. The confusion laid in the fact that your subject and object of the verb had to both be plural or bith be singular because you are using a form of the verb "to be."

Answer 6

The first is correct, the second is incorrect. "Caring for life" and "safeguarding your home" are 2 things and so take a plural verb.

Answer 7

Caring for life and safeguarding your home is our responsibility forever.

Answer 8

Neither is correct. It should be


Caring for life and safeguarding your home are our responsibilities forever.

Two things = responsibilities
one thing = responsibility

Answer 9

How about, "Caring for life and safeguarding your home will be our responsibility forever."?

Answer 10

Caring and Safeguarding ARE.

one IS
two ARE.

easy to remember.