Which sentence is the right one?

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

There’s many stray dogs in this area.
There’re many stray dogs in this area.

Which is the correct sentence?

Thanks.

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2

The second one is correct. However the first one is very common, almost to the point of being standardized.

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3

Thank you @NearlyNapping. I was having trouble thinking how to answer this.

I think #1 is possible because you barely hear the verb at all. I think it becomes more of a problem if you say “There is…”.
Also, without thinking, the speaker could be considering “many stray dogs in the area” to be a characteristic.

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4

Yes, it’s only used in the contracted form. “There is many…” sounds pretty bad.

But then “there’s many” probably sounds bad to a lot of people also, but it sounds almost normal to me for casual conversation. I wouldn’t use it on a resume though.

It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s only used in some parts of the US.

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5

The first is colloquially tolerable while the second is grammatically acceptable!

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