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ESL forum >
Ask for help > Grammar Question. Help needed!
Grammar Question. Help needed!
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yingwenlaoshi
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Grammar Question. Help needed!
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Hello dear colleagues. I would like to ask you for some help in the following matter. I often meet sentences of this kind: 1) There are a number of mistakes...... 2) There is a lot of people ....... For some reason I find them incorrect , I would say "There is a number of mistakes" (because "number" is singular) and "There are a lot of people" (because "people" - plural). Please tell me if I am wrong, and how actually it is correct to write such sentences, because I frequently see both variants and it makes me confused. Thank you so much for your answers in advance! Anastasia |
23 Nov 2014
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ttuffl
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Hi (1) a number of = many or a lot of so There are is correct (2) I agree with you. But I�m not sure since spoken English is sometimes different from grammar.
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23 Nov 2014
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Juliet77
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Yingwenlaoshi,nin hao! Both variants are correct in your second question. Naturally native speakers use is instead of are. But I think we should use are. |
23 Nov 2014
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yingwenlaoshi
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Juliet77, hello from Russia ;) Thank you for your answer! |
23 Nov 2014
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yanogator
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Hi, Anastasia,
Your logic is inconsistent. Either "is" for both, because number and lot are singular, or "are" for both, because mistakes and people are plural.
Anyway, use "There are" for both. Because "a number" and "a lot" are treated like numbers.
Bruce |
23 Nov 2014
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Gi2gi
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Anastasia, yes, it sounds rather illogical but that �s the way they use it - plural:) Even more curiously, the number is often singular while a number is plural :) For example: The number of mistakes she made in the dictation was huge. A number of her mistakes were quite silly Cheers, Giorgi |
23 Nov 2014
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yingwenlaoshi
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Thank you very much for your explanations. I am really grateful to you. |
24 Nov 2014
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