Which houses (are/is) this road connected to? [duplicate]

We are having a debate at my work on if "are" or "is" is the right word to use in the above sentence (actually, a similar sentence which is work-related).

I am aware that there are other ways of rewriting this sentence which avoids this confusion, but keeping the sentence structure in-tact, what is the right word to use here? and why?

Which houses ____ this road connected to?

1. are
2. is

First time poster here. Be gentle.

Solution 1:

You would use is. In a question like your example sentence, the object is often placed before the subject. The subject of that sentence is the road, and the houses are the object of a prepositional phrase (to which houses). You could rephrase the sentence like this:

This road ___ connected to which houses?

Because "road" is singular, you would say

This road is connected

So your final sentence would be

Which houses is this road connected to?

As an aside, prescriptive grammar perfectionists often admonish "don't end a sentence with a preposition." One reason is to avoid the sort of confusion that you and your coworker encountered. Although this rule is sometimes overkill and often parodied, such a grammar ninja would advise writing either

This road is connected to which houses?

or

To which houses is this road connected?