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NeoLearner t1_ivkkjpg wrote

Unrelated question, but is it "was confiscated" or "were confiscated".

In case of dollars it would be "was" as the individual dollars are not seen as separate entities and thus doesn't count as plural. In case of cars it would be "were", as 36 individual cars are seen as multiple entities.

What about Bitcoins? Was or were? I always considered them separate entities as you generally express things in % of a bitcoin - so "were"

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Bloated_Hamster t1_ivkryxv wrote

AFAIK it can change depending on the context. You use "was" if you view the amount as a collective noun. "$500 was collected from each participant" because the $500 is seen as a single thing - one payment. If you view dollars as a single literal thing as in 500 one dollar bills then you use were. Bitcoin is the same. You use "was" when talking about a collective amount of Bitcoin, or use "were" if talking about individual coins like "500 total Bitcoin were stolen from 20 people today."

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