Plurality

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Frank Erskine - 05 Nov 2004 00:30 GMT

When we talk about "a few", "a lot" or "a number of", are we talking
singular or plural?

Should we say, for example, that "there are a lot of
people.......(whatever)", or "there is a lot of
people.......(whatever)"?

To my mind "a" suggests the singular, but common useage seems to imply
otherwise.

Very likely this has been discussed before, but I've only recently
discovered this newsgroup :-)

TIA -

Signature

Frank Erskine

Reply to this Message

sum1else - 04 Nov 2004 20:09 GMT

frank.erskine@btinternet.com wrote:

> Should we say, for example, that "there are a lot of
> people.......(whatever)", or "there is a lot of
> people.......(whatever)"?

I'd think that "a lot" is a single item, literally speaking, so it
should be right to say 'is a lot'.
But I think I almost always say 'there are a lot of people " in
my daily casual, unthinking speech.
Maybe I'll stick to "there are loads of people who ... "!

Signature

Ian

Reply to this Message

einde. ocallaghan - 05 Nov 2004 02:36 GMT

> frank.erskine@btinternet.com wrote:
>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> my daily casual, unthinking speech.
> Maybe I'll stick to "there are loads of people who ... "!

The phrase a "a lot of" (or also "lots of") is a quantifier meaning
"much2 or "many". Whether the verb is singular or plural when the phrase
with "a lot of xxxx" or "lots of xxxx" depends on whether the noun (or
pronoun) represented by "xxxx" is singular or plural. So:

"A lot of people were interested." or "Lots of people were interested."

and

"A lot of money was collected." or "Lots of money was collected."

REgards, Einde O'Callaghan

Reply to this Message

David - 05 Nov 2004 02:20 GMT

> When we talk about "a few", "a lot" or "a number of", are we talking
> singular or plural?

> Should we say, for example, that "there are a lot of
> people.......(whatever)", or "there is a lot of
> people.......(whatever)"?

> To my mind "a" suggests the singular, but common useage seems to
> imply otherwise.

> Very likely this has been discussed before, but I've only recently
> discovered this newsgroup :-)

> TIA

Maria?

A lot is undeniably singular but people are indisputably plural.

US (or, as they like to say, American) "English" generally would use
the singular but English English would use the plural.

Or, to put it another way, would you prefer to hear "a lot of people
says you should use is" or "a lot of people say you should use are"?

Signature

http://www.dacha.freeuk.com/mavic/0m03-0.htm
Crackpot

Reply to this Message

Discussion Groups / British English / November 2004

Plurality