Other than sounding awkward, is the phrase ';What colors is found in that painting?'; grammatically incorrect?

If this is an error, what kind of language infraction is it?





I know there are many better ways to say this, but I wanted to clarify if it is in fact a mistake. Thanks!Other than sounding awkward, is the phrase ';What colors is found in that painting?'; grammatically incorrect?
It is grammatically incorrect. The verb ';is'; should be replaced by ';are'; to agree with the noun ';colors.';





Colors are beautiful, but a color is beautiful.Other than sounding awkward, is the phrase ';What colors is found in that painting?'; grammatically incorrect?
Definitely incorrect - ';colors'; is plural and so takes a plural verb, ';is'; should be ';are';. The infraction is subject/predicate disagreement or subject/predicate case incongruency.
';Colors'; is plural. Should be stated ';What colors ';are'; In the painting.'; Or---';What colors can be found in the painting.';
'; What colors ARE found in that painting?';





Yeah, it is gramatically incorrect because your tenses do not match.
It's not awkward once you correct the subject/verb agreement issue.





If you prefer, you can use a more restrictive modifier (';which';): Which colors are found in that painting?





My personal bias is to prefer the sound of ';which'; in the sentence, but either way is correct.
the subject is plural (colors) therefore the verb must also be plural.





Strip away the stuff around it and you find you want to know about colors, so you say ';colors is?'; No... ';Colors are.'; So that's the way it works. Also ';in that painting'; is a prepositional phrase and can be completely removed without affecting the sentence ';What colors are found?'; So that helps make it clearer.





Cheers
Simply change it to:





';What colors are found in that painting?';





- is grammatically correct!
Yes, it is gramatically incorrect to say that.





If you wanted to know what color (singualr), it would be correct. But, since you are asking for plural (colors- more than one) it is incorrect.
Isn't it ';What colours ARE found in that painting?';





As 'colours' is a plural so you have to use a plural connective.
In standard English this would be ';What colors are found in that painting?';





Harleigh Kyson Jr.
Replace is with are. Is is used in the singular mode; are in the plural
Since the word colors is plural, you need to use ';are'; instead of ';is';. Is would be singular.