There are vs. there is a number of

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

The most used form seems to be ‘there are a number of (things, people etc.)’. However,
I occasionally come across ‘there is a number of…’, which I personally find more logical, since ‘number’ is a singular noun. Any comment, anyone?

Thank you.

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Hi Conchita,

I think there is a number of sounds very odd although technically as you say, number is a singular noun. I’m happier with There are a number of … because this really means There are several/many …. The new tendency is to use the following for singular and plural and is becoming accepted: There’s … So we have There’s a hair in my soup. There’s a number of things wrong with this essay.

Just a few thoughts.

Alan

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Hi,

Clearly the examples I used by their very content indicate usage in speech. The worthy Gregg is simply stating the obvious and the reference here is not really relevant. We were talking about there is/there’s

Obviously when you say: The number of unemployed has risen from 50,000 to 75,000, you are talking about one number. This is quite a different kettle of fish from: A number of unemployed (exact number not known and therefore assumed to mean several) are now running their own businesses.

To offer a more up to date text, I refer to Pam Peters and her book The Cambridge Guide to English Usage (2004)

.

Alan

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4

.
I prefer to consider a number of a phrasal quantifier, like a lot of, lots of, a great deal of, etc. The number of the noun does not then come into play-- though countability is germane:

There are a number of players on the team.
There is a great deal of excitement about the game.
There are a lot of / lots of players.
There is a lot of / lots of excitement.

There’s with plural entities is a spoken phenomenon unrelated, I think, to Conchita’s original concern.
.

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5

hello

i found this sentence in a book

there are a number of reasons for (sth)(global warming for example)

is this right ?

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6

Yes, it is

You have brought up an interesting question: although “a number of” is singular, it requires a verb in the plural. It doesn’t tally with the standard grammar rules, but it is rather an exception to them.

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7

This question has been discussed at length in this thread. Just read the first posts in it.

TOEIC listening, talks: Traffic update on radio

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What do you think about the following phrase:

“There is/are about 1000 rooms in the hotel.”

Which is correct in your opinion?

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There are 1000…

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Thanks!

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11

Yes, number = plural, so it should be “There are a number of…”.
I think the problem is that these days natives generally say “there is” for everything, even at the BBC!

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12

Please let me know if these sentences below could be correct. If not please type it proper way.

If we deal with an ensemble consisting of a finite set of numbers (x1,x2,…,xn), we know that there must be more than one particular set of numbers (y1, y2,…, yn) that satisfy the condition.
Here, y is another ensemble consisting of (x1, x2, xm), in which n belongs to the set of the natural numbers where m<=n.

Thanks

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I cannot vouch for the mathematics, but the grammar is OK. You can use either ‘satisfy’ or ‘satisfies’.

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14

Use is if you want to emphasize the group; use are if you want to emphasize the individual members.

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15

Welcome to the forum, 51n4.

Marc

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There is a number of errors in the understanding of this issue.

Strictly speaking, accurate English does not and shall not yield to how one feels about the ‘sounding’ or complicatedness of the construction of a proper English word or sentence, even if one may personally find it difficult to pronounce or spell.

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