singular / plural

This is an example of a grammar issue that is made difficult because frequent usage of the "a lot" construction in informal conversation makes it tricky to say what is correct based on how it "sounds."  Whether the nouns are countable/uncountable or singular/plural is beside the point; as they are part of a prepositional phrase, they are really only serving as part of a modifier.  "Lot" is the noun to be concerned with.

You wouldn't say, "There were a group of children at the playground."  "Group" implies many children, but the noun itself is singular.  It *would* be correct to say, "There were several groups of children at the playground," however.  The expression "a lot" works similarly.

Anonymous

Look at it like this. When you're referring to singular nouns, it's always singular even if there are lots of them. Here's an example:

What was in the room?

There WAS a television, a radio, a sofa and a table.

 

Most grammarians accept: There was/were a television, a radio, a sofa and a table.

CB

Goodman

<<<<and "most grammarians accept "there was/were a television, a radio, a sofa and a table" >>>  I guess I am not a grammarian.
I personally won't say "there were a television.."

 

No, I didn't think you would. To a grammarian, there is more to it than the next word. There are at least three views on this.

1. The rule of proximity: The first word after the verb is singular (a television), so a singular verb (was) can/should be used.

2. The rule of number: If only one thing is mentioned, use a singular verb (was); if more things are mentioned, use a plural verb (were). I remember a British graduate of Oxford University who lectured on English Philology at Helsinki University and was an enthusiastic proponent of this rule. He considered was wrong in cases like this. Similarly, he considered media is and algae is always wrong as well. I use the past tense because he is no longer alive.

3. Liberal grammarians, who don't really care which one of the above rules is applied. (As I said, I'm one of them!)

CB

Inchoateknowledge

When it is treated otherwise, both [the] plural and singular is are okay.

 

Hey, Incho! Where have you been? I'm glad you're back! Remember, though, you and I are not always right. There are many opinions. Chairman Mao once said something about allowing all flowers blossom. I really don't know how that was translated into English. In China, however, only his flower was allowed to blossom. 

Incidentally, I wouldn't use is with both but if you insist on that, it's just fine with me!

CB

Inchoateknowledge

However, I do not see any problem with the article you bracketed.  

 

Nor do I! Square brackets just indicate it's optional. In this case the reason is that singular and plural are opposites. Other examples: from morning till evening, from east to west.

CB