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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
there is some, there are some
Hi,
Im confused.
A local English teacher at the school im working at in Hong Kong asked me this today....
"Should it be, there IS some noodles in the bowl, or, there ARE some noodles in the bowl"
My instict was 'oh this is an easy question', until I started to think about it.
The way I look at it, 'noodles' is a collective term for more than one noodle, so it's plural, so it should be 'ARE'.
But the more I thought about it the more 'there IS some noodles in the bowl' sounded correct also, but IS is used more commonly for singular, right?, e.g There IS a noodle in that bowl --> There ARE some noodles in that bowl.............make sense?
But what about - There IS some rice --> There ARE some rice. Doesn't work becasue rice in this instance is 'uncountable', right? But surely the noodles are uncountable aswell, is it simply because of the 'es' ending that you can use ARE?
I found a similar question on this forum from a couple of years ago, debating whether you should use 'IS' or 'ARE' when refering to a company, e.g British Coal IS proposing a new deal, or British Coal ARE proposing a new deal etc etc.......but it didn't really answer my question.
It seems a stupid quesiton, but perhaps it's only when a non-native speaker asks, you actually ever think about these things!?
Basically, what is the rule (if there is one) for using IS and ARE ???
Thanks in advance.
Nick
Im confused.
A local English teacher at the school im working at in Hong Kong asked me this today....
"Should it be, there IS some noodles in the bowl, or, there ARE some noodles in the bowl"
My instict was 'oh this is an easy question', until I started to think about it.
The way I look at it, 'noodles' is a collective term for more than one noodle, so it's plural, so it should be 'ARE'.
But the more I thought about it the more 'there IS some noodles in the bowl' sounded correct also, but IS is used more commonly for singular, right?, e.g There IS a noodle in that bowl --> There ARE some noodles in that bowl.............make sense?
But what about - There IS some rice --> There ARE some rice. Doesn't work becasue rice in this instance is 'uncountable', right? But surely the noodles are uncountable aswell, is it simply because of the 'es' ending that you can use ARE?
I found a similar question on this forum from a couple of years ago, debating whether you should use 'IS' or 'ARE' when refering to a company, e.g British Coal IS proposing a new deal, or British Coal ARE proposing a new deal etc etc.......but it didn't really answer my question.
It seems a stupid quesiton, but perhaps it's only when a non-native speaker asks, you actually ever think about these things!?
Basically, what is the rule (if there is one) for using IS and ARE ???
Thanks in advance.
Nick
Top answer
Hi, Say There ARE some noodles in the bowl. You could count them if you really, really, really tried. We say there are a lot of grains of sand on the beach although it would be a bit lengthy to actually count them.
- Hi, Say There ARE some noodles in the bowl.
- You could count them if you really, really, really tried.
- We say there are a lot of grains of sand on the beach although it would be a bit lengthy to actually count them.
- Best wishes, Clive
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9 Answers
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Hi,
Say There ARE some noodles in the bowl. You could count them if you really, really, really tried.
We say there are a lot of grains of sand on the beachalthough it would be a bit lengthy to actually count them.
Say There ARE some noodles in the bowl. You could count them if you really, really, really tried.
We say there are a lot of grains of sand on the beachalthough it would be a bit lengthy to actually count them.
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I found a similar question on this forum from a couple of years ago, debating whether you should use 'IS' or 'ARE' when refering to a company, e.g British Coal IS proposing a new deal, or British Coal ARE proposing a new deal etc etc.......but it didn't really answer my question.
British Coal IS proposing a new deal. (when you're referring to the company as an entity)
B
British Coal IS proposing a new deal. (when you're referring to the company as an entity)
B
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In my opinion, no one would bat an eyelash if, in an ordinary, informal conversation, you said, using the contracted form:
There's some noodles in the bowl.
In everyday conversation, there's has come to be quite common for pointing out the existence or presence of something, whether singular or plural, at least in AmE -- and especially with some o
There's some noodles in the bowl.
In everyday conversation, there's has come to be quite common for pointing out the existence or presence of something, whether singular or plural, at least in AmE -- and especially with some o
00
Thank you all for your very helpful information!
The point about the contracted form definitely makes sense, if someone asked me if there was any noodles in that bowl, it seems much more natural in conversational English to say 'Yes, there's some noodles in there' as opposed to 'Yes, there ARE some noodles in there'.
But it's the technically correct form that I was looking for s
The point about the contracted form definitely makes sense, if someone asked me if there was any noodles in that bowl, it seems much more natural in conversational English to say 'Yes, there's some noodles in there' as opposed to 'Yes, there ARE some noodles in there'.
But it's the technically correct form that I was looking for s
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Is it necessary to put "some" in front of the uncountable noun?
Can I say "There is water." or I should say "There is some water."?
How about non-substance, like "information", "usage", etc?
For example,
There is information.
There is some information.
There is no information.
Is there any information?
There is such kind of information.
Is th
Can I say "There is water." or I should say "There is some water."?
How about non-substance, like "information", "usage", etc?
For example,
There is information.
There is some information.
There is no information.
Is there any information?
There is such kind of information.
Is th
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azargrammaIs it necessary to put "some" in front of the uncountable noun?Yes and no. Consider these:
Can I borrow some sugar ? I just ran out. Option: A cup o sugar.
There is some left-over fried rice in the fridge from last n
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Thank you, grammarfreak.
Do you mean the following sentences are incorrect?
There is water.
There is
Do you mean the following sentences are incorrect?
There is water.
There is
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azargrammaDo you mean the following sentences are incorrect?There is water.There is information.There is usage. Can I use the noun stand-alone?Yes you can, but within a syntactical context. You can say:
" I believe there is water on Mars...." ( as a gen
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