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Which of these sentences is correct ?

  1. Is taking all your stuffs along with you is clumsy and annoying?
  2. Is taking all your stuffs along with you clumsy and annoying?
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    First of all, stuff is an uncount noun, so you don't use the plural form, stuffs. The correct sentence is: Is taking all your stuff along with you clumsy and annoying? – JayHook Feb 25 '15 at 14:38
  • Thanks a lot .......... Actually my colleague said the correct sentence is "Is taking all your stuffs along with you is clumsy and annoying" using 'is' twice in single sentence – user17720 Feb 25 '15 at 15:02
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@JayHook is correct, stuff is typically never used in the plural in English - it refers to an unknown or indefinite quantity/collection of things.

Is taking all your stuff along with you is clumsy and annoying?

You don't need the second "is" here. English interrogative mood usually flips the subject and verb to verb-subject order. Taking all your stuff along with you is a full phrase that functions as the sentence's subject.

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  • Well, not only do you not "need" the second "is," the sentence is ungrammatical with it. – user6951 Feb 25 '15 at 17:44
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Taking all your stuff along with you is a noun phrase. It can be the subject of a sentence. Just like John can be the subject of a sentence.

If you make an assertion, you say

John is clumsy and annoying.

If you wish to ask a yes/no question about John, you change the order of subject and verb:

Is John clumsy and annoying?

That should be enough information for you to see which is the correct sentence. But to be explicit...

To make an assertion about your subject, you say:

Taking all your stuff along with you is clumsy and annoying.

To ask a yes/no question about your subject, you reverse the order of subject and verb:

Is taking all your stuff along with you clumsy and annoying?

It does not matter that the noun phrase is so long here; the native English speaker processes the whole thing quickly as being a noun phrase.

Note: I have changed stuffs to stuff, because usually we use "stuff" as a mass noun, especially when it appears alone.

Occasionally, stuffs can be a count noun, as in food stuffs. But even this noun phrase is not one you will see every day.

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