I Google-searched in quotes this: "The top 20 most common verbs is" and received 32.600.000 articles.
I Google-searched in quotes this: "The top 20 most common verbs are" and received 28.700.000 articles.
What is correct, "is" or "are". I think like this. Article "the" means always singular, means 1, like "a". There is no "The verbs" and "top 20 most common verbs" means "list" (1 list) and we have "The list is" and not "The list are".
Or these sentences:
"Check out this list of the 30 most common verbs in the English language! The verbs are listed in their base form, present tense, past tense, and perfect forms." (URL: https://ginsengenglish.com/blog/most-common-english-verbs)
"The verbs" in second sentence means "this list" in the first sentence. Why do not write only "Verbs are listed..." without "The"? "The" article builds superlative because noun with superlative is alwayes 1. There is no more "The best", but only 1. Because of that there is no more "lists the most..." but only 1 "list the most...".
This my question is being induced by this: "England (have/has) been the weaker side..."?