Subject verb agreement

Question

Hi Everyone,Here is a sentence:' If you look overseas there's a lot of examples...'The word - there's - is something I see a lot. The contraction means 'there is'. Shouldn't it read, 'there are?'I know the word 'lot' comes into play, but I can't help feeling it sounds wrong.Wouldn't it be better to say,'...there are lots of examples?'The latter doesn't sound so clumsy as the first sentence (in my mind). Thanks Cup Cake.

GPY · Accepted Answer

"there are" is correct, and should be used in formal English. However, in colloquial English it is not uncommon to hear "there's" used with plural complements. To me it sounds casual rather than clumsy.

CalifJim · Answer

Cup cakeIf you look overseas there's a lot of examples.

In the casual speech and writing of many people, the contraction "there's" agrees with both singular and plural expressions. This is not so for "there is", however, which is treated as a singular.

There is sugar on the table. / There's sugar on the table.
There are several knives on the table. / There's several knives on the table. / Not There is several knives ...

CJ

Cup cake · Answer

Thanks CJ.

This is a fabulous forum to help put things into perspective as well as get answers.
Many thanks.

Anonymous · Answer

There is an argument in favour of using there is in the sentence even in formal speech as 'there is' is followed by a lot of....  a lot being singular. Still 'a lot of' tends to take on the sense of many which is plural. Actually 'a lot of' which is vague and imprecise would be better replaced by something else.... many for one! several  also somewhat imprecise but which do give a relative sense of quantity while 'a lot of' is overused.

Subject verb agreement

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