Grammar question
Please See this example:

"A broad range of antibiotics are available with varying mechanisms of action."

I don't know why "are" is used instead of "is" I think the verb to be is referring to the range not the antibiotics themselves.

Please elaborate.

Thanks

Question

Grammar question
Please See this example:

"A broad range of antibiotics are available with varying mechanisms of action."

I don't know why "are" is used instead of "is" I think the verb to be is referring to the range not  the antibiotics themselves.

Please elaborate.

Thanks

Answer

Technically, you're correct. It should be "a range of [plural noun] is", because "range" is singular. In practice, both are used, but "is" is more common.

You can see usage statistics of "range of antibiotics is/are" here: https://tinyurl.com/ydysoaay
You can also see usage statistics of "range of subjects is/are" here: https://tinyurl.com/ycqjvru6

As you can see, "is" and "are" are both used, but "is" is used more.

I would stick with "is".

Answer

This use of "are" is a mistake. As you see, the last word of the noun phrase "a broad range of antibiotics" is plural. So, the person who wrote this text just made a mistake. We are all human after all. Usually such mistakes occur with noun phrases having more words.

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