Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
Average earnings was v. Average earnings were
English answer:
Average earning were
English term
was
in 2009 was 4xxx
Was should be were?
Thank you..
| 5 +7 | were |
Allison Wright (X)
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| 5 -2 | was |
Komeil Zamani Babgohari
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Feb 7, 2011 05:57: Allison Wright (X) Created KOG entry
Non-PRO (1): Tony M
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Responses
were
I would rephrase though, and use "was":
"The average monthly cash *earned* per employee in the seven Tohoku prefectures in 2009 *was* XXX"
| agree |
Thayenga
: In this context a definite "plural". :)
6 mins
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| agree |
Jack Doughty
1 hr
|
| agree |
kmtext
1 hr
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| agree |
Tony M
: Even though a singular conceopt, 'earnings' are plural, and 'were' sounds perfectly natural here.
3 hrs
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| agree |
Nicole Y. Adams, M.A.
7 hrs
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| agree |
JapanLegal
: "Were" is correct, and I see no need to rephrase the sentence.
7 hrs
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| agree |
eski
14 hrs
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Iran
Integrity and Fidelity Talk!
Native in: Persian (Farsi) 
Works in: English to Persian (Farsi), Persian (Farsi) to English, Persian (Farsi)
was
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Note added at 1 hr (2011-01-31 07:27:58 GMT)
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average is Sing so ....
(agreement of verb)
| disagree |
Anton Konashenok
: 'average' here is an adjective!
3 hrs
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| disagree |
Tony M
: 'average' is only an adjective describing the plural noun 'earnings'
3 hrs
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Discussion
Seriously, though, even in the short time I've been using the 'Net for research, it's horrifying just how quickly the most ghastly errors get perpetrated, and it's getting increasingly hard to sort the wheat from the chaff... which is why informed, intelligent interpretation and in-depth investigation of search results is so important.
"what are the average earnings"
"what is the average earnings"
"the average earnings are"
"the average earnings is"
...and the confusion should be complete.
It still sounds decidely odd to my GB ears; I note that a large number of the results seem to come from the US, so perhaps once again this is more common in AE than in BE; I also noticed quite a lot of instances by people with an otherwise less-than-perfect command of EN! And it must not be forgotten that 'earning' can appear in this construction as an adjective for a following noun; for example, simply re-doing your search eliminating "earning potential" instantly removed 25% of the results.
However, you are clearly right that it is used in some circumstances; but I have to admit, Canute like, that I don't like it!
(Thanks, Barbara!)
Look at some of the adjectival examples included in the results of your own search:
"The average earning asset mix shifted during 2008", "What is the average earning potential for individuals...?" "the average earning assistant would be paid..." etc.
http://www.google.com/search?q="the average earning"&aq=f&oq...
It's like 'wages': we would say "He collected his wages every Friday from the office" — the singular here would sound really odd; but we would indeed say "He earned a good wage" — here, used as a countable, the plural (non-countable) form would sound equally wrong. But of course there is also a countable plural usage: "With two wages coming in, they were quite well off."
The situations isn't identical with 'earnings', since it can only be uncountable; there isn't a singular form 'an earning' (other than in the gerund: 'the action of earning', which is uncountable)
In other words, it's not plural. To avoid weird grammar, the sentence could be changed.