all the lights...

Question

I found these sentences:1)The bank was closed and all the lights were off. I am not sure how to use the word all...would 'all lights were off' be right?I also heard  something like 'all persons should wear a helmet'...Can you please tell me when do we use 'all' or 'all the'?2) There is a lot of people in the shop.Would ' there are a lot of people' be right as well? What is the difference?Thank for you for your help!

KrisBlueNZ · Accepted Answer

1.

"All the lights were off" is short for "All of the lights were off". In this case, we are talking about specific lights; that is, the lights in the bank. If you went into the building, you would be able to point to each one of these lights. Therefore we use the definite article, the.

All [of] the lights means each and every one of them. Each and every light was off, therefore all [of] the lights were off.

All lights were off is an abbreviated version of the same sentence. Its meaning is clear, and you might write something like that in your notebook to save time, but you would probably not read that in a novel, for example, unless it was done for effect.

All persons should wear a helmet (actually it should be All persons should wear helmets) is also correct. There is no definite article because the statement applies to any person who may be in the dangerous area, not to a specific identifiable person.

In this case, the phrase persons in the dangerous area includes all of the people who are in the dangerous area. So it might be enough to say Persons [in this area] should wear helmets, but adding All at the start emphasises the fact that there are no exceptions. Even the President of the USA, if he goes into that area, should wear a helmet.

Strictly speaking it's wrong to say that persons (plural) should wear a helmet (singular), but this is one of the compromises that are made with signs. The purpose of the sign is to make the person reading the sign think "I should wear a helmet" (singular). The last idea in a sentence often sticks in the mind the strongest, so they end the sign with a helmet instead of helmets. They could change the sign to say Every person should wear a helmet, but then they couldn't use All, which adds important emphasis. So English grammar, being the least important consideration for the person creating the sign, is thrown out, and you get a sign that says All persons should wear a helmet.

Finally, I would use must instead of should in that sentence.

2.

"There is/are a lot of people in the shop" is an example of theory and practice not always agreeing. In theory, a lot (of anything) is singular, so I guess you should say there is a lot of people. But this is not the normal way to say it, and it sounds wrong to me. The focus of that clause is people, which is plural. Also, the sentence means the same as "there are many people", which (correctly) uses are, not is.

So the short answer is that There are a lot of people in the shop is standard. If you want to say There is a lot of people in the shop, you might be right, but there aren't a lot of people who would agree with you :-)

Diotima · Answer

Thank you KrisBlueNZ for your thorough and very informative reply, I found it very very useful

!

all the lights...

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