Complete this sentence. Three days is/are short.?

Question

i am confused. In the subject verb agreement, when the subject is amount of money or distance.. the verb is singular... like "Five miles 'is' a long walk." what about "Three days is/are short."?

Answer 1

Three days IS a short time; but three days ARE needed to finish the job.

Answer 2

Because '3 days ', '5 miles' '50 pence' are all total amounts. You don't have 3 seperate days, you have one length of time that is 3 days long, or one distance that is 5 miles etc. If you had '3 cats' you would have 3 seperate cats, not one cat as big as 3 cats. Does that explain it?

Answer 3

When it's a segment of time, it's considered singular, like:
Two weeks was too short for a trip to Europe.
But, you could say:
Three days are my favorites: my birthday, Christmas, and New Years Day.
Those are 3 separate days, not a segment of time.

Answer 4

IS....

Are....would indicate that EACH of the individual days is short, and in this context would be grammatically incorrect because short would be a designation of size and three "days" can be no shorter than any other days....

A "day" is a standard measure of time....

Answer 5

It depends on the rest of the sentence. If you say "...three days are short," you're meaning that the days themselves are short (such as a short period of daytime in the winter months). If you say "Three days is a short period of time," you're talking about the three days COLLECTIVELY, and that means it's singular.

Answer 6

Three days "are" short~

Answer 7

is

Try it in a differnet sentence, Three days is a long time.

Answer 8

is