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ESL forum >
Message board > there is or there are
there is or there are
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Zora
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Okay, as a native I know what is throwing most off.... it �s the "a" in "a lot of" BUT "a lot of" is just a modifier - like say - "lots" "many" "much"... and has nothing really to do with whether it should be one thing or another - the important word here is "things" ... things is plural so it should be:
There are a lot of "things" - when in doubt remove "a lot of"...
Example:
There is a lot of snow... "snow" is singular and uncountable therefore we use "is"...
There are a lot of dogs... "dogs" - plural...therefore we use "are"...
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26 Feb 2009
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kriszcsel
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Hi everyone,
adding to what Zora wrote: There are a lot of dogs - dogs(pl) OR There are lots of dogs.
Have a great evening,
Krisztina
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26 Feb 2009
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magherinis
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there is a lot of energy, there are a lot of children, in my opinion it is there are a lot of things (plural noun). bye |
26 Feb 2009
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eng789
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There is a lot of sugar in the bowl. - There are a lot of bags of sugar in the cupboard.
Doesn �t it have something to do with countable and uncountable nouns? |
26 Feb 2009
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MissMelissa12
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� �a lot of � � is only the quantifier which mention a big amount of something.
Therefore, you should use there is /there are considering the noun after � �a lot of � �
E.g
There is a lot of sugar. Because � �sugar � is unccountable so that we see them as � �singular � �
There are a lot of students. Because � �students � � is a count noun in plural.
Miss Melissa.  |
26 Feb 2009
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