Plural and Singular

Always Plural

Collective Nouns and Singular Verbs
"Approximately 100 ml of yellow-tan serous fluid IS found in the right and left pleural cavities."

Discussion from Usenet:
From Toni Mercadante, tmerc@ix.netcom.com:
MT Guide Do's and Don'ts, 25-3, says to treat a unit of measure as a singular collective noun. One of the examples given: "Forty milliequivalents of KCl was given.

AAMT Book of Style, p. 352, subject-verb agreement, states that units of measure are collective singular nouns and take singular verbs. Their example: "Twenty milliequivalents of KCl was given."

Gregg Reference Manual, 1024, p. 217 states, "When subjects expressing periods of time, amounts of money, or quantities represent a total amount, use singular verbs. When these subjects represent a number of individual units, use plural verbs."

From: cdoozle@aol.com, Cathie Duzyk
I was told: VOLUME DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A PLURAL.M
I've checked the Harbrace College Handbook, Saunders Manual of Medical Transcription, and even dug out the book on medical transcription provided by AHIMA when I did the ART ISP years ago, and NONE of them address this issue. It is singular because it is considered a "unit of measure," unit being one, regardless of how many cc, mL, or whatever.

From: bbentsen@ix.netcom.com (Bill Bentsen)
It looks like Fordney and Diehl et al. (MT Guide) and the guys at AAMT were drinking in the same bar, but at different tables. Look at their examples. Like group, assembly, class, committee, etc., we'll just add gm, cc and ml to it.

From: thom@usa.net (Thom Foulks)
Newspaper and Timestyle: A collective reference does not break down to plurality, unless there is need to refer to components of it. The reference remains singular, because you are referring to the whole content of the reference. In a broader sense, it' s your stamp collection; not your stamps collection, regardless of how many are involved.

From Bill:
The subject is really milliliters, a collective noun like group, family, etc. Look at it this way: "A collection of old hats is found in the attic."

A = article adjective
collection = subject (collective noun; singular)
of old hats = prepositional phrase
of = preposition
old = adjective modifier of noun, hats
hats = object of preposition
is found = singular verb, passive with singular, collection
in the attic = prepositional phrase

From Toni:
The way I read it is: "of yellow-tan serous fluid" is a prepositional phrase. Fluid is the object of the preposition and as such cannot be the subject of the sentence. I believe the subject is "40 ml," a collective noun, which would take a singular verb.

This is based on what I think I learned in the dim past. It's been a long time since I took English 101 in adult education, and perhaps it's time I took a refresher course. Do you think there's such a thing as very adult ed.?