0
Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

is and are

I read in a English guide from my local university that one should say 'There are a lot of people/things (etc)' instead of 'There is a lot of people (etc)'. The reasoning behind this is that the phrase 'a lot' is behaving like a modifier (ie: many).

Would this reasoning apply to the following?

There IS/ARE a whole number of people going to the conference

There IS/ARE a vast number of theories that IS/ARE relevant to the subject

Thanks

Mike
  

Top answer

Hi, Anon, There IS a whole number of people going to the conference. ) There IS a vast number of theories that ARE relevant to the subject. (The subject is 'number' again, and ARE is used further because it refers to 'theories' - plural; it could also refer to 'number' again, but a number itself can barely be relevant.

— Ruslana

  • Hi, Anon, There IS a whole number of people going to the conference.
  • ) There IS a vast number of theories that ARE relevant to the subject.
  • (The subject is 'number' again, and ARE is used further because it refers to 'theories' - plural; it could also refer to 'number' again, but a number itself can barely be relevant.
  • ) Hope that helps!
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

1 Answers
0
Hi, Anon,

There IS a whole number of people going to the conference. (For the subject is 'number' - singular.)

There IS a vast number of theories that ARE relevant to the subject. (The subject is 'number' again, and ARE is used further because it refers to 'theories' - plural; it could also refer to 'number' again, but a number itself can barely be relevant. At any
0

Related Questions