Consider:
How does Google, Hewlet Packard, AMD, etc. make money?
I interpret Are or is for a list of items as meaning it should be:
How do Google, Hewlet Packard, AMD, etc. make money?
Is the last sentence the correct one?
Is there an online resource that deals with lists and grammar in excruciating details?
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robertd
[ Editor ]
My understanding is that lists joined with and are almost always plural. The "almost always" escape clause refers to cases where the list is singular, such as:
Peanut butter, jelly, and mustard is my favorite kind of sandwich.
I gather that lists joined with or, on the other hand, are usually treated as singular or plural depending on the first or last item and whether the verb comes before or after the list.
In this case, I think you're exactly right, that the plural do is appropriate. (I would also put a comma after "etc." in the specimen you quoted, but times being what they are...)
Yeah, I’m looking at this and seeing the relationship. It seems to me that you are interpreting it correct-ly. =)
This is essentially correct, except that I do not agree with a comma placement after “etc.”. To do so, you would have to argue successfully that ‘et cetera’ be treated as an appositive or parenthetical part of the sentence. I agree that at first glance it appears that such an argument can be made, but at the end of the day I do not think that it can be proved that it has ever been accepted as standard. …Just one more reason to dislike “etc.” due to the ambiguity it inherently introduces. =)
@Donald Remero: I was reminded that maybe Wikipedia user “Tony1” mentions this in his writing tutorials as there is fair amount of material about lists. It turned out to be true. “etc.” in this context is an example of a “subset term”; from “Subset terms”: “Subset terms frame the items of your list as part of a larger set of items … need to be used with care … etc. (avoid in encyclopedic text — it means "and the rest”, and suggests that you can’t be bothered to tell us)“, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tony1/Howtoimproveyourwriting#Common_problems. I hope I have interpreted correct.
donald remero
[ Admin ]
The grammatical subject in question is that of "compound subjects."
Relative to the example, "How do X, Y, Z, etc. do that?" is correct form. This compound subject is unambiguously plural.
To the extent that the abbreviation for "et cetera" can be the cause of some confusion, it is useful to remember that the "et" part of "et cetera" means "and". If we translate "cetera" as "the same" or "the rest," we have an unpacked sentence that reads "How do X, Y, Z, and the rest do that?" When you think about the sentence in this form, perhaps the incorrect alternative would seem less appealing. "How does X, Y, X and the rest do that?" would probably strike the ear of a advanced English speaker as obviously incorrect.
Robertd is definitely correct in noting that there are such things as compound singular subjects like "peanut butter and jelly." But, your example is definitely not one of them.