This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
Compiding
LHH, HHH, FMG,OPSS
Mar 21, 2010 22:29
14 yrs ago
English term

10 ml are/is trasferred

English Science Chemistry; Chem Sci/Eng
Is it customary to say '10 ml of the solution ARE transferred to'.... or '10 ml IS transferred to'....? Linguistically, it should be plural, but what's used in scientific articles?
Responses
4 +7 10 ml is trasferred
4 +4 10 ml are transferred

Discussion

Dr. Andrew Frankland Mar 22, 2010:
Present or past tense? If it's an Experimental procedure it should be written in the past tense "10 mL of the solution WAS transferred...."
Karen Tkaczyk Mar 22, 2010:
ACS ACS is the American Chemical Society, in case that's not obvious.
Karen Tkaczyk Mar 22, 2010:
Singular, always Units of measure are treated as collective nouns and take a singular verb. I use the ACS style guide.
Veronika McLaren Mar 21, 2010:
I would say amounts are generally considered "collective" and used with a singular verb unless there is a good reason to use the plural. http://www.mtdaily.com/mt1/plurals.html

Responses

+7
3 mins
Selected

10 ml is trasferred

Uncountable noun -> singular, generally speaking
Peer comment(s):
agree Stephanie Ezrol
44 mins
disagree Jennifer Levey : But the mls *are* being counted - there are ten of them --> plural.
1 hr
There are ten (of apples) -> countable; There is ten ml of the solution -> uncountable in itself, but only countable in scale
agree Claire Cox : I would use the singular verb too
1 hr
neutral David Hollywood : I certainly wouldn't .... it's plural straight and simple :) Google hits are not the be all and end all of translation :)
2 hrs
"ten gallons of water is" and "ten gallons of water are" (with quotes) in Google show, respectively, 45,800 and 11,700 hits; You are right, "Google hits are not the be all and end all of translation" but you can refer to as actual occurrences :j
agree Karen Tkaczyk : Style guides are a better reference than google stats
4 hrs
agree Gillian Scheibelein : Singular in scientific writing. Plural is commonly used in everyday speech and wrongly used by laypersons for written texts hence the large number of hits for the plural in Google
5 hrs
agree Veronica Prpic Uhing : As Gillian explained - but I was transferring 10 or whatever ml
7 hrs
agree Dr. Andrew Frankland : Absolutely, and I speak as the (former) editor of a scientific research journal.
10 hrs
agree Maria Fokin : "10mL samples ARE transferred" but "(a sample of) 10ml IS transferred"
11 hrs
agree B D Finch
11 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+4
28 mins

10 ml are transferred

Both are valid, but I would follow a logical pattern:

ten gallons are spilled, poured, transferred, etc.

ten milliliterS are spilled, poured, transferred, etc.

Peer comment(s):
agree Jennifer Levey : Both are commonly used, but 'are' should be used in this case since the mls are being counted (there are ten of them).
50 mins
agree Jack Doughty
1 hr
agree David Hollywood : absolutely :)
1 hr
agree Lingua.Franca : absolutely. with David.
2 hrs
disagree Karen Tkaczyk : If you know of style guides (UK or US) that say this is correct I'd be interested to hear of them. I thought singular was pretty standard.
4 hrs
agree Rolf Keiser : we are speaking of millilitreS (plural) and not milliliter (singular)
9 hrs
disagree Dr. Andrew Frankland : I'm with Karen, the ACS Style Guide is very clear on this point.
10 hrs
agree Phong Le
1 day 2 hrs
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search