Doing business in Russia and doing business in the US are/is completely different.

[B45]

Doing business in Russia and doing business in the US are/is completely different.

Can I use both here?

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would use "are" there. I suspect you would hear "is" from some.

 

[Tdol]

I would too- there are two things and we're separating them by saying that they're different, so using the plural verb makes more sense to me. I agree that some speakers may well use is, though.

 

[B45]

I would use "are" there. I suspect you would hear "is" from some.

If both native speakers are saying are, why would we still hear is used?

Would is be considered wrong?

 

[Tdol]

There are hundreds of millions of native speakers in many countries, so it's often hard to have absolute agreement on something. Sometimes it is a matter of choice whether we think of two things as one unit and singular or as two individual things. Here, I think there are two things (doing business in the US + doing business in Russia), but both Mike and I can imagine someone thinking of it as all one thing (doing business). I don't think there's a very strong case for using is, but I can see some people using it.

 

[SoothingDave]

I don't think a native would think of the two things as one and choose "is" because of that. I think it more likely that someone talking spontaneously would lose sight of the subject by the time they got to the end and just match "is" with the closest noun.