IS or ARE?

by Dawn
(Philippines)

"Just 5 minutes is enough."

In the above sentence, "5 minutes" is plural, so why do we use IS and not ARE?

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Dec 16, 2012
 Answer
by: Chelsey

That's a good question!

It is correct to say, "Just 5 minutes is enough."

IS is the simple present form of the verb "to be."

The simple present form IS can follow these subjects:

He
She
It

Although "5 minutes" is the subject of this sentence, it represents "time," which is a singular subject.

So the subject of the sentence is actually time, and like we said, it is singular.

Here's another way of looking at it:

1. Just 5 minutes is enough.
2. Just 5 minutes of time is enough.
3. It is enough.

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