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The collection as a whole is the thing that is being compared. 400 computers are on the desk. 200 students are better than you. (everyone one of those student
by aaronblohowiak 14y ago
The collection as a whole is the thing that is being compared.
400 computers are on the desk.
200 students are better than you. (everyone one of those students are individually better than you.)
200 students is better than none. (the total number is being compared as a singular item to the quantity 0)
- djacobs 14y agoI'm not an expert on this, but I have a different take. I think that "is" happens when there is an implicit gerund before the plural noun. - [Working] five days in the office is too much (I do think that the title should be "too much", not "too many") - [Having] two hundred students is better than [having] none. That is, there is an implicit subject, and it is not the plural noun, which is actually a direct object.
- huffman 14y agoWould "200 students are better than none" be invalid? When you swap out the number with some other word i.e. "Some students is better than none", using "are" is the correct choice.
- corin_ 14y agoAnybody would understand you, but there is a difference. Using the word "none" doesn't help explain, so change that to "me". "200 students are better than me" means that there are 200 all of which are better than me, it's not grouping them together, just counting them. "200 students is better than me" would mean that as a collective they are better than me, but I might well be better than each of them individually.