Is it there is or there are?
What is the right choice for this question and why, please?
There (is-are) a boy,a girl and an old man.
Top answer
lime piano 242 What is the right choice for this question and why, please? If that is a test question, it is unfair. Either number of the verb is defensible.
- lime piano 242 What is the right choice for this question and why, please?
- If that is a test question, it is unfair.
- Either number of the verb is defensible.
- " It's hard to pronounce "there're", and we habitually contract in speech.
- Also, the number of the verb tends to take the number of the nearest noun, in this case "boy".
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lime piano 242What is the right choice for this question and why, please?
If that is a test question, it is unfair. Either number of the verb is defensible. I would use "are" in careful writing, but I would almost certainly say "There's a boy, a girl and an old man." It's hard to pronounce "there're", and we habitually contract in speech. Also, the number
0From a strictly grammatical point of view, are is correct as there are three people. However, especially in informal spoken English is is commonly used and many grammarians consider it correct, too.
There being no language academy or any other similar institution in the English-speaking countries, there is no ultimate truth about points of grammar either.
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