Re: In the garden is/are a cat, a dog, and a rabit.

Yoong Liat — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:43:27 GMT

Hi Teo

I hope the following will be helpful.

In BrE, it should be There is a cat and a dog.

Below is the information extracted from two books on English usage. The first book is on British English usage, the second on American English usage.

'The Right Word at the Right Time' states as follows:

There is an apple and pears for dessert.

There are apples and a pear for dessert.

'Merriam-Webster 'Guide to English Usage' states as follows:

When a compound subject follows the verb and the first element is singular, the verb may be either singular or plural.

There is a lake and several small streams.

There are a dog and a few cats in the house.

The singular construction is more common. Still, some writers insist on formal agreement and use a plural verb: There were an apartment house and a parking lot at the end of the block.

Best regards

Re: These are a cat and a dog... ummm

Yoong Liat — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:18:52 GMT

Kooyeen wrote:
Yoong Liat wrote:

Yoong Liat wrote:

There is / are a cat and a dog. (In AmE, both are acceptable.)
Hi Yoong,
I didn't know that, where did you find out it? I always thought "are" didn't sound very good. Maybe it's ok but it's not used much?

Hi Kooyeen

'The Right Word at the Right Time' states as follows:

There is an apple and pears for dessert.

There are apples and a pear for dessert.

The above is BrE.

'Merriam-Webster 'Guide to English Usage' states as follows:

When a compound subject follows the verb and the first element is singular, the verb may be either singular or plural.

There is a lake and several small streams.

There are a dog and a few cats in the house.

The singular construction is more common. Still, some writers insist on formal agreement and use a plural verb: There were an apartment house and a parking lot at the end of the block. \u003c/strong\>\n \u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"1\"\>\u003c/font\>Â \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"1\"\>I would appreciate it very much if you could publish this in your column so that Yi Ren and the other readers of your column will learn the difference between British and American English usage in regard to a sentence which starts with "There is".\n\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"1\"\>\u003c/font\>Â \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"1\"\>Best regards\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>",1] ); D(["mb","\u003cspan class\u003dsg\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"1\"\>\u003c/font\>Â \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"1\"\>Koh\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003c/span\>",0] ); D(["ce"]); //-->

Search results for 'tag:American English tag:Compound subjects' matching tags 'American English' and 'Compound subjects'

Re: In the garden is/are a cat, a dog, and a rabit.

Re: These are a cat and a dog... ummm