Grammar question

[trickykitty]

...because I suck at English.

So which is correct:
What $105 get you in China.
What $105 gets you in China.

I realize that my brain and customs causes us to say "gets," but would you count "$105" as a single noun (some dollar amount, i.e. a price) or as a plural noun (many dollars more than $1 available) or is it specifically context related?

Comments

[triplemare.livejournal.com]

I think that it would be the second one,
"What $105 gets you in China"

[corsetsnpearls.livejournal.com]

i read it like this: "What one hundred and five dollars gets you in china"
otherwise i would say "what one hundred and five dollars WILL get you in china"

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

I have no Chicago Manual basis for this, but my gut is the second. In a lot of cases, even if it's not grammatically "correct", custom does win over correctness.

But, thinking through it, it depends on what you're saying how to think about it (that doesn't change how I'd say it, though). If you say "What one hundred and five (there's another example of custom over grammar, by the way) dollars gets you in China" versus "What one hundred and five gets you in China", though they're all technically separate dollars and therefore become a plural noun, it acts as a singular even if pluralised (at least in this context).

Actually, the more I think about dollars in grammar, the more I think that they're sort of odd.

[trickykitty.livejournal.com]

Ha ha. I gotcha thinkin'. :)

[grian-eun.livejournal.com]

I. Adore. Your icon. I have one somewhere that says, "Don't make me beat you in the name of grammar." It's one of my favorites.

Also, I agree with the others--the second one seems grammatically sound to me.