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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Grammar

'There was a wealth of causes' or 'There were a wealth of causes?
  

Top answer

Anonymous There were a wealth of causes. As shown. 'a wealth of' can be considered a multi-word quantifier, so agreement is with the following noun causes .

— CalifJim

  • Anonymous There were a wealth of causes.
  • As shown.
  • 'a wealth of' can be considered a multi-word quantifier, so agreement is with the following noun causes .
  • CJ
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6 Answers
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AnonymousThere were a wealth of causes.
As shown. 'a wealth of' can be considered a multi-word quantifier, so agreement is with the following noun causes.

CJ
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I disagree with the other poster. When deciding on subject-verb agreement, prepositional phrases ("of causes", in your sentence) should be ignored. Thus the subject "wealth" (which is singular) requires a singular verb, "was".
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AnonymousWhen deciding on subject-verb agreement, prepositional phrases ("of causes", in your sentence) should be ignored.
What would you recommend for this one?

There [was? / were?] a number of causes.

CJ
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CalifJim.What would you recommend for this one?There [was? / were?] a number of causes.CJ
In general:

number of - plural
the number of - singular
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What would you recommend for this one?

An increasing number of films is/are available for rent.
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