In Noun phrases^x, Dialects^x

I obviously agree with Forbes: it depends on your first language. I have never had any problems with passive sentences, subjects and objects, the difference between countable and uncountable, etc. because those are all features I have in Italian too. It is not difficult at all for me to use...

Yet, how can you say that "There are a lot of people" is correct? The noun phrase (a lot - singular) and the verb (are - plural) are at odds with each other. One does not use a singular article ("a") if it is meant to be plural, correct? The fact that "people" is plural is entirely immaterial as...