"Třicet osm dnů je devět set dvanáct hodin?"
Translation:Thirty-eight days is nine hundred and twelve hours?
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No, they don't, see the discussion at https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/24432784 and the links mentioned there, such as https://awelu.srv.lu.se/grammar-and-words/common-problems-and-how-to-avoid-them/subject-verb-agreement/sums-of-money-and-periods-of-time/ or https://erinwrightwriting.com/use-plural-singular-verbs-money/ or https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/599/01/
Also see the comment by BrianSille2 below.
When the time periods are referenced as an interval we use the singular: Five days is too long. Twenty-five minutes is a new world record. Ten minutes is six hundred seconds.
"Long" is an adjective, the five days it describes is plural, so "are". "Record" is a noun, a singular and main noun, so it "is" twenty five minutes strictly speaking. At the end of the day it does not really matter, and in colloquial English one does find "is" and "are" interchangeable in these usages.
I'm okay with "is" but I was taught that "and" is used only in place of the decimal point. Nine hundred twelve hours. Nine hundred twelve and three fifths hours.
Standard English says "nine hundred and twelve" "nine hundred twelve" is American
That's interesting. As it has been said, Britain and the US are “two nations separated by a common language”.
Thanks.
I come in peace. Personally, I think it is silly to debate about whether the verb "should" be sing. or plural. The Moderator, a native CZ speaker, is letting you know how it is done in his language. That's all we need to worry about. Also, this verb issue is addressed in the Tips for this lesson.
I am here for a different question. The Tips says we should use Genative case for the counted item following numbers larger than four. However, in this sentence, the counted item is the subject, and subjects should be in Nominative case. So does this sentence teach us that the rule for numbers takes priority ?
Sort of. The number třicet osm is in the nominative case here, it is the subject. Then you have a modifier that further determines that it is the quantity 38 of days/dnů. The days are not the subject here, the number is.
I just want to say that the grammar of the English translation disturbed me, too. Glad to know that's how it's done in Czech, but it's not proper to use that construction in English. "Thirty-eight days HAVE nine hundred and twenty hours?" or "Are there nine hundred twenty hours in thirty-eight days?" Just because something is used in a certain way doesn't make it correct. "Five days is too long" may be accepted as correct now - I can't do anything about that - as much as I would like. ;)
It's equivalent to "four eighths is [the same as] two quarters", you don't need "have" there. Just a verbal equivalent of the equal (=) sign.
This extremely pedantic point has generated a considerable volume of discussion about English grammar. It is to learn Czech that we are here.
In spanish we say "Treinta y ocho días SON novecientas doce horas". It is in plural.