Stupid question about english grammar

[French jurist]

Which of those two sentences are correct :

a multitude of opportunities is unfolding

a multitude of opportunities are unfolding




Thanks !

 

[jp]

I'd go for the version with are.

But I think there's a difference between US and UK grammar, we tend to use are for plural nouns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences#Nouns

 

[HowardinBA]

Plural would be....multitudes of opportunities

 

[French jurist]

Yes, I think it depends on which side of the Atlantic you live.

It's strange because in France it depends :
a multitude of sounds donnait (for gave. singular. and not donnaient) a noisy atmosphere.
... That's because it's the multitude of those sounds that made it noisy = singular

a multitude of questions venaient (plural. came) to his mind
... that's because the questions come to his mind, not the multitude of it.

 

[cafeconleche]

Plural would be....multitudes of opportunities

No, plural would be
A multitude of opportunities are unfolding.

 

[voyagingknoxvillian]

"Multitude" is the noun, and is a singular word. Therefore, a multitude (of opportunities) IS unfolding.

 

[Napoleon]

Yo soy un yanqui...

I would go with:

A multitude of opportunities is unfolding.

Then again, I know that there is only one Liverpool, so I say "Liverpool is excited about new ownership."

I know that England is a singular country, so I would say "England is still looking for their first legitimate World Cup win, since many think that since the 3rd goal against Germany in '66 never crossed the goal line, it should have been disallowed. And Germany would have played much differently with a 2-2 score than being down 2-3."

As with Spain: "Spain is lucky that the World Cup referees in South Africa were worthless, because they still haven't scored a legitimate goal against Portugal this year and they couldn't score against the Netherlands until Iniesta's diving tricked the ref in the Finals into giving two undeserving yellow cards to a Dutch defender. And it was only after the Dutch were reduced to 10 men that the diving crier Iniesta was able to score the winning goal. And now Spain is the reigning World Cup champion."

Multitude is

Multitudes are

But again, I'm American.

 

[jp]

If you google the two phrases, you'll find both in use on different sides of the atlantic.

 

[HowardinBA]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Multitudes

 

[Celia]

The multitude is the subject matter, the opportunities are just describing the multitude, so I'd go with the singular.