There IS/are more than one?

Question

Hello,Which is correct?There IS more than one car.There ARE more than one car?It seems like ARE because it is referring to more than one?Thanks.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

It is a problem, but most or all grammar books consider 'more than' a quantifier:

There's more than one car.
More than one bag was stolen.
More than two bags were stolen.
etc.

Englishnewbie · Answer

Thank you.

CalifJim · Answer

englishnewbieWhich is correct?There IS more than one car.There ARE more than one car?

A surprising number of style manuals single out the expression "more than one" for special mention, saying that it is always singular for purposes of subject-verb agreement.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Hello:

May I add my two cents to the excellent answers from the in-house experts.

One great grammarian said that many people consider "more than" as an adverb meaning "not merely."

Therefore:

More than one student has benefited from the question that you asked today.

That is, "Not merely one student has ...."

HAVE A NICE DAY!

BillJ · Answer

englishnewbieWhich is correct?There IS more than one car. There ARE more than one car?It seems like ARE because it is referring to more than one?

"There is more than one car" is the correct version.

In comparative constructions like this, the determinative "more", (the head of the more than phrase), generally requires the strict comparative interpretation of 'greater amount', thus "There are more than two cars" asserts the existence of 'a greater amount than two cars' (i.e. three or more cars), and the plural verb "are" matches that interpretation.

But complications arise when the numeric quantifier is "one", as in "There is more than one car". The presence of "one" selects the singular noun "car", even though "one" is not head of the phrase. This results in a clear discrepancy between meaning and form: "More than one car" denotes a plurality of cars; but it's syntactically singular, so the correct verb form has to be singular "is". It's just an anomaly that we have to accept.

BillJ

There IS/are more than one?

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