Confusing English Grammar: “IS” or “ARE”?

In this lesson, you'll learn some special uses of the verb "to be".

Now, this lesson is for you, whether you're a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level

student because everyone makes these kind of mistakes.

Okay?

So what we'll do is first we'll do a little quiz to see where you are today, then I'll

explain three simple ways in which you can always know what's right, and then we'll do

a little review.

Okay?

So let's get started.

All right.

So, what you need to do is just tell me whether we should say "is" or "are".

Okay?

So, the first one, "Everyone _____ here."

What should it be?

"Everyone is" or "Everyone are"?

Ready?

Okay?

Okay?

So, here, it should be "Everyone is here."

Now, if you got it wrong, don't worry, I'm

going to explain everything after this section.

Okay?

Number two, "Some of the equipment _____ heavy."

Some of the equipment is or some of the equipment are?

What's the right answer?

Do you know?

It should be "is".

Okay?

Again, I will explain why afterwards.

Next.

"These flowers _____ lovely."

Or, "These flowers are lovely."

What's right?

"These flowers are lovely."

Very good.

Number four, "_____ anybody home?"

"Is anybody home?"

Or do we say, "Are anybody home?"

What's the right answer?

"Is anybody home?"

Okay.

Number five, "All the phone lines _____ busy."

Or, "All the phone lines are busy."

What's the right answer?

Should be?

Okay.

And number six, "None of this information is correct or are correct."

Think about it.

Okay?

So, "None of this information is correct."

Okay?

Now, if you didn't understand why it's like

that, or if you got even one of these wrong,

please make sure to watch the next section because when we're talking about the verb

"to be", right?

With "is" or "are", these are very basic words,

and if you get it wrong, it's kind of a bad

mistake to make.

All right?

And you don't want to make it.

But after you watch the next part, you'll understand exactly what to do.

Okay.

So, now let's look at the three areas where you might have made a mistake.

Okay?

And I'm going to explain it to you so that

you understand exactly what the right answer

is and why.

All right?

Okay.

So, the first is in these kind of words, like

"everyone", "everybody", "someone", "somebody",

"no one", "nobody".

Now, these are sometimes confusing because especially here, "everyone" sounds like a

lot of people, right?

But the way you have to think about it is that in English, "everyone" is still "one"

and therefore singular, and "everyone" as a group is still "one group", and therefore

it's still singular.

So, therefore, with all of these kind of

words, we need to use the singular verb "is".

"Everyone is", "someone is", "no one is".

Okay?

And then whatever you want to say.

Okay?

"Everyone is happy", "everyone is here", "everyone is studying", whatever.

Okay?

But the main thing is that with all of these words, use the singular verb "is".

Okay?

All right.

Now, let's go to a second category where sometimes students make mistakes.

"This", "that", "these", and "those".

Now, "this" and "that", first of all, are singular.

Okay?

So, they take the verb "is".

"This is lovely", "that is lovely".

"These" and "those" are plural, so they take the plural verb "are".

"These are lovely", "those are lovely".

Okay?

Let's say we're talking about flowers.

All right?

Now, when we're...

When you're trying to understand "this" and

"that", and "these" and "those", in case you

haven't mastered it already, I do have a separate

lesson exactly on that subject, which you

can watch, because really, when we're talking

about "this" and "that", you're thinking about

two things, which is why it's sometimes a little bit confusing.

First, you have to think about whether you're

talking about something singular or plural.

Right?

So, as I said, "this" and "that" is singular.

We're talking about one thing.

Right?

"This book" or "that book".

Now, why am I pointing in two directions?

Because the other thing that you have to keep

in mind when you're choosing the word "this"

or "that" is whether the thing is near or a little bit far.

So, if it's near, we say "this", or if it's plural, we say "these".

If it's far, we say "that".

If it's one thing that's far away, like "that

book", but if it's far and it's more than

one, we say "those".

So, it's like this.

"This book", "that book", "these books", "those books".

Okay?

Got it?

All right.

So, that's why those words can sometimes be a

little bit confusing, but just keep in mind,

most of all, is it one thing you're talking about or is it more than one thing?

And if it's one thing, then say "is".

If it's more than one thing, say "are".

All right?

Next.

This is probably the most confusing area, and

that's because it has to do with something

called countable or non-countable or uncountable nouns.

What does all that mean?

Okay, so let's look.

So, you could say "all" or "most" or "some" or "none", doesn't matter.

What matters is what's going to follow that.

Okay?

So, if we say, for example, "all of the information", we should say "is true".

Why?

Because "information" is what we call an uncountable noun; we cannot count it.

But here, if we look at this one, "all of the reports are".

So, "reports" is a plural noun; it's a countable noun, something we can count.

So, the countable nouns are plural or

singular; depends what we are talking about.

And the singular...

The uncountable noun, like "information", is always singular.

Okay?

Now, how do you know if a word is countable or uncountable?

Well, you can learn that.

Okay?

One of the ways you can learn it is you can also download a resource that I've written

on engVid, and we have a list categorized-okay?-to

explain to you exactly which nouns you can

count and which nouns you cannot count in English, and that's important because that

issue can cause lots of problems whenever you speak English, even with basic verbs,

like "is" and "are", with the verb "to be".

Right?

Okay?

So...

But to give you an example, "luggage" is a

non-count verb, but "suitcases" is countable.

So, we would say, "All of the luggage is here."

Or, "All of the suitcases are here."

Okay?

So, you see what happened there?

"All of them are", "all of it is".

Okay?

So, the non-count is always singular.

Also, what else is singular?

And what else is considered a non-count verb...

A non-count noun?

It's "subjects".

For example, even though "mathematics" has an "s" and "economics" has an "s", it's not

plural.

Okay?

So, we say "mathematics is easy", for example, or "economics is interesting".

Okay?

Not "are".

The same with subjects or languages, like "French" or "English".

"French is", "English is".

Okay?

And, again, also with a lot of abstract nouns.

What do we mean by "abstract nouns"?

They're not talking about physical things.

For example, "love" or "advice" or "education".

Right?

It's not something we can hold in our hands, but it's...

So, it's called "abstract".

And those are non-countable, so those are singular.

For example, "education is valuable", or we could say "these lessons", "these English

lessons are valuable".

Okay?

So that became plural.

"This education is valuable", "these lessons are valuable".

Okay?

So, you see that even a simple verb, like the

verb "to be", you still have to understand

clearly which one to use, when, and how to use it.

So, I hope you've understood this.

And if you want some more explanation, more

detailed explanation, I'm going to link below

this lesson to a separate lesson just on this part, and on this one, and on this.

Okay?

So you can always go into further detail if you find that you're still making mistakes

or you want some further clarification.

Okay?

But let's go back and just see how well you've

understood now what I explained here by doing

one last quiz.

All right?

So, here we go.

Number one, everything blank ready.

So, you're going to choose between "is" or "are".

Okay?

What's the right answer?

Think about what we learned.

It should be "everything is ready".

Okay?

Remember we said "everyone", "everybody", "everything", same principle.

Okay?

"Somebody", "something", anything like that.

Number two, "This cake _____ delicious."

What should it be?

"This cake is delicious."

Okay?

Very good.

Again, "this" means one, so we're talking

about singular, and the singular form of the

verb "to be" is "is".

All right?

Number three, "Someone _____ in the car."

What should it be?

"Is" or "are"?

It should be "Someone is".

Okay?

Remember, again, "someone", "somebody",

"everyone", "everybody", "no one", "nobody".

Okay?

"Everything".

All right?

So, it's singular.

"Someone is in the car."

Think of it as one.

Okay?

Whenever you see that word "one", remember that it's singular.

Whether it's "everyone" or "someone" or "no one", we're still talking about one.

All right.

Oops.

Number four, "No one _____ at home."

What's that?

What should it be?

"Is" or "are"?

I think I helped you a little bit just now.

So, "No one is at home."

Okay?

Very good.

Now, you might notice that the word "no one" is written as two words.

Okay?

That's very common to write it as two words.

Sometimes it's written with a little hyphen in the middle, but it's not written as one

word as you see with all of the other examples.

Okay?

Like "someone", "everyone", those are all written as one word.

But "no one" should be written as two words or as one hyphenated word.

All right?

So keep that in mind.

Number five, "Most of his advice is useful."

or "Most of his advice are useful."

Think about that.

We learned about it.

It was the third category of things that we learned.

So, what should it be?

"Most of his advice is useful."

Why?

Because "advice" is one of those non-count nouns.

Right?

So, therefore, we have to make it singular.

All right?

Now, if it said, for example, "Most of his

ideas" or "Most of his suggestions" or "Most

of his recommendations", those are all plural.

"Ideas", right?

With an "s".

"Recommendations" with an "s".

"Suggestions" with an "s".

It doesn't mean that because there's an "s" it's always going to be plural, but in this

case, yes, because that's something we can count.

So then it would be "Most of his ideas are useful."

"Most of his suggestions are useful."

Okay?

But "advice" is singular because it's something we cannot count.

And number six, "Those laptops _____ expensive."

"Is expensive" or "are expensive"?

"Those laptops are expensive."

Okay?

Finally, we had an "are" because...

Why?

Because the word "those" already tells us we're talking about something plural, more

than one.

Okay?

See here, "Those laptops are expensive."

Okay?

So, I hope you got those right, but in any case, you can always practice some more.

Just go to our website at www.engvid.com,

and there you can do a quiz on this and just

really master the subject once and for all.

It's so important to say "is" and "are" properly.

But not only "is" and "are", any form of that verb.

"Is" and "are", of course, is in what tense?

The present tense.

But if you're talking about the past tense, the same rules apply.

Everything that I explained to you is exactly

the same, except that the words we're going

to be using are "was" and "were".

So, "was" is the singular past tense of "is", right?

And "were" is the past tense of "are", the past tense of the verb "to be", and that's

plural.

Okay?

So, in any of these, we could have said everything was ready.

This cake was delicious.

Someone was in the car.

No one was at home.

Most of his advice was useful, or those laptops were expensive.

Okay?

So, whether it's "is" or "are", or "was" or "were", the main thing is to understand the

principles behind it, which I hope you've done.

Okay?

And if you like this lesson, please subscribe

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of other useful lessons to help you improve your English very quickly.

Bye for now.

Thanks for watching.