there is/are a group of people

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

Hi,

There is/are a group of people fighting among themselves on the street.
vs.
A group of people is/are fighting among themselves on the street.

Which is correct? And why?
Thanks.

2

There are a group of people fighting among themselves on the street.
A group of people are fighting among themselves on the street.

Why? Because the individuals are combating each other; it is not the single group that is performing a concerted action.

3

Possible to say it this way below?

There is a group of people in the street. Fighting among themselves.

Thanks

4

Thanks.

5

No E2, You have turned it into two ‘sentences’ the second of which is not a sentence.

There is a group of people in the street. They are fighting among themselves.

6

There ‘is’ a group of people in the street. They are fighting among themselves.

Why do we use “is” in this case?

Thanks.

7

Because we are speaking about the single group rather than the individuals who make up that group:

There are people in the street.
There is a crowd in the street.
There are crowds of people in the street.

8

A learner

Because there is one single group of something.

9

Hmmm… there’s a bit of an echo in here this morning. :wink:

10

Have you got the reason now, Ricky?

11

reason?

What do you mean?

12

I still think my second sentence is acceptable. (At least in Informal English).

There is a group of people in the street. Fighting among themselves.

The second sentence isn’t grammatically independent one. The sentence is dependant on the previous one which the independent one is connected to.
The full stop is used to indicate that type of sentences, called fragments or orthographic sentences.

Both sentences could be considered as a reported speech as well for the event has been happening at the moment of speaking. Moreover, a dramatic effect is obtained.

?

Thanks

13

No, your argument does not work, E2e4. Fragments exist in advertising, in literary prose, and in casual conversation, but cannot be considered any sort of acceptable sentence structure in standard usage.

Thinking that a fragment is ‘acceptable’ will only lead to poor English in the end for the learner.

14

The reason that we use ‘is’ in the case under discussion:

15

Slowly, but it takes some time to understand the concept of Subject and Verb Agreement in English, Collective nouns especially, I’d say.

16

Hmm …
“There is a group of people in the street. They are fighting among themselves.”

Quoted from Mister Micawber - ‘The individuals are combating each other; it is not the single group that is performing a concerted action.’

Then, shouldn’t it be ‘there are’ instead of ‘there is’ ?

Pardon my ignorance, because I’m quite confused.

17

No, not necessarily. Now that you have placed them in separate sentences, we are free to consider the group a single entity in the first sentence until a new aspect of their activity is presented in the second sentence.

18

Ouchh…
God save me. hahah …
There are so many things to consider when speaking English…
;S

19

I’m confident you’ll get there. Like many of the other ‘best’ learners on this site you display tenacity and a willing attitude to work.

20

Thanks, hopefully.