THERE IS/ARE with Quantifiers and Collective Nouns

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with  Jennifer. There's a saying that goes like this:  

If you can't beat them, join them. Usually in  the flow of conversation, "them" is reduced,  

so it sounds like this: If you can't  beat 'em, join 'em. It basically means  

that it's okay to join the majority when you  realize you can't win a fight against them.  

Well, that may not be the best advice to  follow in every situation in life because we  

need people with the courage to go against the  norm sometimes, right? That's how we innovate,  

but the saying reminds me of what we often  do with grammar. Sometimes a textbook or  

a dictionary will tell us to say things one way,  but we know that many people say it differently in  

everyday English. That's the difference between  prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar.  

I generally recommend standard grammar  because that's what's accepted in the  

majority of situations. But it's completely  reasonable to pay attention to the patterns  

you hear around you and use them -- even if  they're different from the so-called rules.  

If you can't beat them, join them. It's okay  to follow or even embrace descriptive grammar.  

In general, I think being flexible and  being adaptable benefit communication.  

Here's one example where I follow descriptive  grammar. The rules tell us that "there is/there  

are" agrees with the noun that follows.  There's a saying about acceptance of defeat.  

"Saying" is singular. There are proverbs that  inspire us and guide us. "Proverbs" is plural.  

But in a list of items, American English  speakers tend to focus on the first noun,  

so when we use "there is/there are," we make  the verb agree with the first noun in that list.  

There is a poem, a song, and  a movie with the same title.

This pattern is especially common  in conversation because we use the  

contraction "there's." There's a poem,  a song, and a movie with the same title.  

I know there are three items in the list, but  I'm focusing on the first one: poem. And it's  

singular, so I choose a singular verb. This  is what most American English speakers do.  

A similar strategy will guide you  when you use phrases like these:  

a list of poems, a line of shoppers,  a crowd of first-year students.

Focus on the first noun and not the  noun in the prepositional phrase.  

There is a list of poems on her website.

There is a line of shoppers outside the door.  

There is a crowd of first-year  students in the cafeteria. List,  

line, and crowd are examples of collective nouns.  They put people or things together in a group.  

The group is singular so one list is singular. One  line is singular. One crowd is singular. Americans  

tend to use singular verbs with collective nouns,  but this is where it gets a little tricky. Don't  

always assume that "of" + a plural noun means  that what comes before that is a collective noun.  

Do you remember what quantifiers do? They  answer the questions HOW MUCH? or HOW MANY?  

You're probably comfortable using common  quantifiers. They're single words.  

There are many ways to learn English.

There is much information for me to  learn about creating an online store.  

There are a few reasons to stop  and more reasons to continue.  

There is little doubt that  everything will work out.

Quantifiers like "many" and "few" are used with  plural countable nouns, and they take a plural  

verb. Quantifiers like "much" and "little" are  used with uncountable nouns, and they take a  

singular verb. But quantifiers are not always  a single word. We can have quantifying phrases,  

and they often use the preposition "of."  Now look at these sentences. The quantifying  

expressions are used with uncountable  nouns, so you'll see singular verbs.  

Can you identify each quantifying  phrase? There is a good deal of interest.

There is a good amount of money in that account.

There's quite a bit of work to be done.

Remember that some quantifiers can be used  with countable or uncountable nouns. Focus on  

the noun after the quantifying expression. That  will help you determine subject-verb agreement.  

There is plenty of time.  There are plenty of towels.  

There is more and more demand for the product.  There are more and more cars on the road.  

There is a lot of work to be done.  There are a lot of people who can help.  

There is a bunch of stuff here.  There are a bunch of papers here.  

Let me read some statements and you can  identify the quantifying expressions. Okay?  

There are a lot of apps for language learners.

There are tons of websites with free resources.

There are a number of digital  products I want to offer.

There are a bunch of ideas I  can't wait to put into action.

There are dozens of videos on that topic.

Now look again at those highlighted phrases.  We use them to quantify countable nouns,  

plural nouns, so we use a plural verb.

Note that the words "dozen" and "bunch" have  two functions. They can be singular nouns,  

but we can also use them as quantifiers. There is  a dozen. One dozen. I'm referring to the group of  

12 things. A single unit, so I use a singular  verb. I could say, "There is a big bunch,"  

and then I'm referring to that big group,  a single unit. Again I use a singular verb,  

but "dozens of reasons" means all those different  reasons. It's like "many," so I use a plural verb.  

There are dozens of reasons why I did that.  

And "a bunch of ideas" is like saying "a lot of  ideas, many ideas," so again I use a plural verb.  

There are a bunch of ideas I  can't wait to put into action.  

The word number is similar because  I can use it as a singular noun:  

I'm thinking of a number between 1 and  10. There's a number I have in mind.  

But I can also use "a number of" as a  quantifier meaning "several" or "many."  

There are a number of digital products I want  to offer. Does that make sense so far? Good. We  

can also look at the word "variety" and its two  uses. The variety in that store is impressive.  

Or we can use "a variety of things" to talk  about many different things in a collection.  

The Collins English dictionary offers a tip  with "variety." They state that "a variety"  

is often but not always considered plural,  and "the variety" is considered singular.  

A variety of colors are available.  There are a variety of colors.

Let me just add that if someone said,  "There's a variety of colors," I think  

it's still acceptable. It's just a question  of what the person is focusing on: the unit,  

the group or the different  things within that group.

So, we've talked about subject-verb  agreement and lists, and we've  

talked about subject-verb agreement with  quantifiers and quantifying expressions.  

We need to bring quantifying collective  nouns back into this discussion.  

I already gave some examples with line,  list, and crowd. Those are collective nouns.  

Here are more collective nouns that help  us quantify things. A herd of elephants.  

A swarm of bees. A host of problems. These nouns  (herd, swarm, and host) pull things into a group.  

These collective nouns also create a bit  of a challenge with subject-verb agreement.  

Collective nouns may be used with singular  or plural verbs, but in American English,  

we tend to consider them singular, so we use  a singular verb. We say things like this:  

There is a family sitting at the table.  There is a committee handling this matter.  

There was a swarm of bees under the tree. There  is a herd of horses running across the field.

Family ,committee, swarm, and herd all have  many things within them, but I'm thinking of  

them as a single unit. In the last two examples,  I'm thinking of the group -- that one group.  

The swarm and not all the bees. The herd and  not all the horses. So far, I've only shown  

collective noun + "of" + plural noun. But some  collective nouns are used with uncountable nouns:  

a pack of wolves or a pack of gum. Do you know  how farmers count hay? We can count them as bales.  

A bale. A bale of hay. Many bales. Many bales of  hay. There was a bale of hay in front of the barn.  

There were many bales of hay in the fields.  What can we have piles of? A pile of laundry,  

a pile of trash, pile of wood. "Pile" is  countable, but laundry trash and wood are not.  

A word like"pile" allows us to collect  things into a group, a countable form.  

That's what collective nouns do. There's  a big pile of laundry that I need to wash.  

There's a big pile of dirty towels that I need  to wash. If you found the lesson useful so far,  

please subscribe. How about a quiz to check  your understanding? Don't worry if you get  

some items wrong. You can always go back and  review the points and patterns I covered.

I know we covered a lot so take the time to  review and practice. Use the patterns. Look  

for them. Listen for them. Pay attention  to how people use nouns and noun phrases  

with singular or plural verbs. That's all for  now. Please like and share the video if you  

found the lesson useful. A special thank you  to all my YouTube members and all my patrons  

on Patreon. As always, thank you, everyone,  for watching and I wish you happy studies!  

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