“Every” followed by plural

Question

I’d like to know if it’s grammatically correct to use every in the following sentences:

Every five steps forward are followed by ten steps back.

Every few months of peace are followed by months of unrest.

If not, how do I rephrase them?

Answer 1

But your examples are not followed by plurals:

“Every five steps forward are followed by ten steps back.”

“Every few months of peace are followed by months of unrest.”

"Few" and "five" are not plurals. As they effectively count, or group the number of steps/months, they are acting as collectives. When you refer to anything that is grouped, it is in singular form, for example, in "a team of men", 'men' is plural, but the team is singular. So, you could say "every team of men will compete".