There was vs. There were

Question

Dear all,Please help me answer the following question. Thanks in advance. "There was laughter and cheers, then more money-throwing; when Mother came on stage to carry me off, her presence evoked tremendous applause."I am wondering if it is ok to use "There were" instead of "There was" in the above sentence. Thanks!

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Dear all, Please help me answer the following question. Thanks in advance. "There was laughter and cheers, then more money-throwing; ... I am wondering if it is ok to use "There were" instead of "There was" in the above sentence. Thanks![/nq]
Many people would consider "There were..." to be not only acceptable, but the only correct version. But it seems to me that just the opposite is the case: "There were laughter and cheers" sounds ungrammatical, "There was laughter and cheers" grammatical.
At
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001846.html

Arnold Zwicky discusses just this sort of construction: After having identified the following as sounding weird,
"Going to his house was what I lived for. There were liquor, music, and a strong desire for my body. (J. L. King, On the Down Low (Broadway Books, 2004), p. 33)"
he says that he much prefers the following,
"Going to his house was what I lived for. There was liquor, music, and a strong desire for my body."
When he questioned members of the American Dialect Society mailing list about this, many of those who replied agreed with him, as do I.

He then goes on to quote from *Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage*:
"...when a compound subject follows the verb and the first element is singular, we find mixed usage the verb may either be singular or plural. Jespersen... explains the singular verb as a case of attraction of the verb to the first subject, and illustrates it... from Shakespeare... Perrin & Ebbitt 1972 also suggests that many writers feel the plural verb is awkward before a singular noun, and Bryant 1962 cites studies that show the singular verb is much more common in standard English."
So the answer to your question is yes, you may substitute "There are..." for "There is..." in the sentence in question, but many standard speakers of English will think the result sounds odd, even ungrammatical.

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Dear all, Please help me answer the following question. Thanks in advance. "There was laughter and cheers, then more money-throwing; ... I am wondering if it is ok to use "There were" instead of "There was" in the above sentence. Thanks![/nq]
I think I like it just the way it is. I suppose it could be re-written as "There were cheers and laughter ..." and it would also sound fine. Maybe you'd prefer that version? Or "The crowd laughed and cheered, and then threw more money ..."

Usenet · Answer

@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
[nq:1]Dear all, Please help me answer the following question. Thanks in advance. "There was laughter and cheers, then more money-throwing; ... I am wondering if it is ok to use "There were" instead of "There was" in the above sentence. Thanks![/nq]
I'd prefer 'There was laughter and cheering, then ...'

Ritz (England)

Usenet · Answer

"There was laughter and cheers..." or "There were laughter and cheers..." ?
It does seem cogent to argue that pairing the singular "was" with a plural "laughter and cheers" is inconsistent.
Yet the use of "was" does sound appropriate here. But why ? Most educated native speakers of English wouldn't say, "There was apples and oranges." Why does one seem right and the other wrong ?

The difference is that "laughter and cheers" describes a condition which is perceived as singular. The two go together to produce one unit of meaning, a picture of a general mood and behavior. Conversely, apples and oranges are perceived as two separate things, even if they are both fruit.
And by the way: In the last sentence, i almost changed the word "if" to "though" because many would argue that "if" is misused, or at least a poor choice. "If" is commonly used to describe something conditional or uncertain, while the fact that apples and oranges are fruit is a given.
I changed my mind within seconds because i realised that the use of "if" in this way is so common that it has in this usage become a synonym for "though." It is also often used as a synonym for "whether." It is therefore a multi-function word, as are several other prepositions.
On the other hand, there may be another factor at play: Why did i prefer "if" to "though" when i wrote it ? I was not conscious of it, but i believe there was a reason.
My purpose for saying "even if they are both fruit" was to describe a conditional circumstance. It was intended to communicate that if* we were talking about any *other similar pair, the same principle would apply.
Which all goes to show that the actual construction of speech is much deeper than grammar. It has to do with how the mind works.

ER Lyon

There was vs. There were

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions