IS or ARE? - Plural..?

Question

Is it:

The gun violations of Mr. Thompson are the first matter Congress members should explore if they’re interested in legislating away loopholes. 

OR

The gun violations of Mr. Thompson is the first matter Congress members should explore if they’re interested in legislating away loopholes. 

thanks

Answer 1

"violations" are the subject and is/are plural

it needs a plural verb to match it. "are" is the necessary verb, as it is plural, is is singular

but "all is well" and "all are well" are each correct given the context.

"all is well" is correct when "all" is used to collectively refer to the singular group of all

while "all are well" refers to the plural group of people

3am and all is well

You all is plural. You is singular or plural, depending on the context. You Sir are wrong. Not You Sir is wrong, even thougt you singular are talking to one and only one Sir.

at this point it may be better to take up Spanish and move to Mexico.

Answer 2

The correct usage would be are as the subject of the sentence is gun violations, a plural noun with its descriptive adjective. Mr. Thompson is not the subject of the sentence, it is just there to specify who the “gun violations” belong to.

Some other ways to think of the sentence:

1. Mr. Thompson’s gun violations are the first matter Congress members should explore if they’re interested in legislating away loopholes. 
2. This arrangement better shows possession of who the gun violations belong to and that the gun violations are the subject of the sentence.
3. Removing words to find the subject of the sentence
4. The gun violations of Mr. Thompson are the first matter Congress members should explore if they’re interested in legislating away loopholes. 
5. The gun violations of Mr. Thompson is the first matter Congress members should explore if they’re interested in legislating away loopholes. 

Hope this helped :)

Answer 3

I can see the confusion! "Violations" is plural, but "matter" is singular. As others have noted, you follow the subject: violations.

Perhaps it might help to flip the sentence:

"An important matter [singular] is Mr. Thompson's gun violations." So in this case, the subject of the sentence is "an important matter," which is singular, so you use "is."

Now compare that with your original sentence:

"Mr. Thompson's gun violations [plural] are an important matter." Now the subject is "Mr. Thompson's gun violations," which is plural, so you use "are."

Here are some other examples:

"My favorite snack [singular] is cookies [plural]." / "Cookies [plural] are my favorite snack [singular]."

"A healthier snack [singular] is veggies [plural]." / "Veggies [plural] are a healthier snack [singular]."

Does this help?