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I presume 's is abbreviation for is and not the possessive form. If this is the case, why do we use a singular verb with many?

And why time and not times?

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  • Where did you read or hear this phrase? "Many's the time" does not sound like Standard English to my (American) ear. I would not recommend learning it, unless you need to speak a dialect that uses this phrase.
    – Jasper
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 13:07
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    I heard that in American Tune by Paul Simon: "Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken And many times confused"
    – Emanuele Fumagalli
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 14:01

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The time is the subject, not many:

Manypredicative complement 'scopula the timesubject

Usually the subject comes before the verb, but in this construction the subject and copular complement are inverted! How can we tell?

  1. Many is an adjective, and adjectives can be predicative complements but not subjects.
  2. More importantly, the verb changes form to agree with the time(s). Let's make it plural:

Manypredicative complement arecopula the timessubject

The verb changes form to are! So we can see that it's agreeing with the right-hand side, not the left-hand side. (The plural version has the same meaning.)

Following either version is a relative clause of some sort, modifying the time(s).

  • It can be a wh-relative:

    Many are the times [ when a designer must sacrifice speed to attain some important feature ] .

  • It can be a that-relative:

    Many are the times [ that he refused payment for his services ] .

  • Or it can be a bare relative:

    Many's the time [ ∅ I've found myself surrounded by a swarm of angry hostiles ] .

Whether it's singular or plural doesn't really change the meaning here.

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