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What are some of the specific criteria for Formula One?

Which one is common to say, "what is the criteria for..." or "what are the criteria for.."?

  • I know criteria is a plural form of criterion. But when I search the keyword phrases  "what is the criteria for"  and "what are the criteria for" at google, the former hits larger results.

  • Answer:

    I find "What is the criteria for [something]?" to be more commonly said than "What are the criteria for [something]?" for two reasons.  1. "Criteria" has been misused so much as a singular word that it is now gaining acceptance as a correct singular form of the word. Correct Singular Forms: criterion and (unofficially) criteria Correct Plural Forms: criterions and criteria 2.  Even if "criteria" wasn't accepted as singular, most people would still say "What is" instead of "What are" because they are already doing that with every other plural word.

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It's sloppy to say "what is the criteria for," but it seems common.  "What are the criteria for" is preferable, and there isn't much of a downside.  It doesn't sound any more formal.

Eric Pepke

A lot of Americans are not well educated in their own language. Your question asks which one is common? If that means which one is more widely used, then I guess I would go with the Google results. However if you asked, "Which one is right (or correct)?" I would go with the one that matches the verb and the noun in number. I haven't checked a reference for this answer.

Jack Crawford

'Criteria' has been used as a singular for more than fifty years. Even the NY Times was doing it in 1966. If you go with 'what is' you won't be wrong, and you'll learn who the pedants in your circle are. http://books.google.com/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&pg=PA310&lpg=PA310&dq=criteria+singular+plural+oxford&source=bl&ots=nZuVnjwZ12&sig=E6z423S5Tnq9kZMuOWiUeJsn1kM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TAXdUMGtO4XW0QHvw4H4BQ&ved=0CFkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=criteria%20singular%20plural%20oxford&f=false

Anonymous

"What is the criteria for" is grammatically wrong. Just because it gives more Google results than the correct version, and just because many ignorant people use that form, doesn't make it correct. It may be "common" but it is never correct.

Gordon Balfour Haynes

Ignorance usually wins. Somehow, the concept of subject matching verb disappeared from English class. Many other ugly things like this are infecting daily speech. It is like out-of-tune notes. Most people don't pay enough attention to notice.

M. A. Steinberger

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