1. My favourite fruit is apples and bananas.
2. My favourite fruit are apples and bananas.
3. My favourite fruits are apples and bananas.

which is (in)correct , which would be most natural?

And would this be correct:
4. My favourite fruit is apples.

Somehow apple or banana in the singular doesn't sound OK to me in either case, but please correct me there too if it's not so.
Thanks in advance!!

10th July 2009, 10:18 PM

 

回复: Jabberwock Location,California, USA,Native language,English - United States Age 40 Re: favourite fruit(s) is/are...

Susie,

For 1 through 3, you are speaking of two items, or two fruits so the correct one would be:

3. My favourite fruits are apples and bananas.

is = singluar
are = plural

Yes, My favourite fruit is apples is correct. Furthermore the following is also acceptable:
My favourite fruit are apples.

Perhaps the grammatically correct way of saying both are:

My favourite fruit is the apple.
My favourite fruits are the apples.

http://forum3cdn.wordreference.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by susie1611 http://forum3cdn.wordreference.com/images/buttons/viewpost-right.png

1. My favourite fruit is apples and bananas. http://forum.wordreference.com/images/smilies/cross.gif
2. My favourite fruit are apples and bananas. http://forum.wordreference.com/images/smilies/cross.gif
3. My favourite fruits are apples and bananas. http://forum.wordreference.com/images/smilies/tick.GIF

which is (in)correct , which would be most natural?

And would this be correct:
4. My favourite fruit is apples. http://forum.wordreference.com/images/smilies/tick.GIF

Somehow apple or banana in the singular doesn't sound OK to me in either case, but please correct me there too if it's not so.
Thanks in advance!!

1 and 2 are incorrect, 3 and 4 correct. In the case of number 4, "apples" in the plural and without an article represents the generic fruit. "My favorite fruit is an apple" would refer to a particular apple, and "my favorite fruit is apple" is simply never used (although I can't give you a grammatical explanation of why).

Edit: I see Jabberwock beat me to most of this. However, I don't think I'd ever use "my favourite fruits are THE apples" by itself. To my ear, "the apple" and "apples" are both acceptable generic terms but I'd expect "the apples" to be modified by something else: "My favorite fruits are the apples from Fred's farm."

2 is also correct for me, and in fact 'fruit are' is rather more natural than 'fruits are'. Adding the '-s' onto the plural seems to emphasize a variety of kinds (like 'fishes' for 'fish'). I would have said the normal plural of 'fruit' was unchanged 'fruit', but evidently some commenters here don't feel that. I wonder if there's a dialect difference?

Googling for "fruit are" shows a number of examples of plural use on the first page:

Why some fruit are long (The Daily Telegraph, so it's standard BrE at least)
Berry fruit are leader of sale in dutch supermarkets
Why fruit are groovy (Nature magazine, so it's used in scientific writing too)

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My favourite fruit ... is apples.

I lie, actually.

My favourite fruits are bananas.

The person of the verb depends on whether we're using a singular collective noun or a plural.

I don't think there is a grammar point, simply because you don't have to say My favourite is appleS, My favourite fruit is apple works fine too, and so it would be fine for mangoes as a plural, I reckon.