Friday, March 21, 2014

grammatical number - 'is' or 'are' in lists of counted nouns




Which of the following is correct?
Does the is/are depend on the total number of things in the list, or only on the thing immediately following the is/are?





There is 1 apple and 1 orange available.
There are 1 apple and 1 orange available.




Also, would it make a difference if one would put the is/are near the end, like so?




1 apple and 1 orange is available.
1 apple and 1 orange are available.




Answer



This one is right:




There is 1 apple and 1 orange available




This is wrong:





There are 1 apple and 1 orange available.




I would personally say




There is an apple and an orange available.








This is now wrong




1 apple and 1 orange is available




This is right (almost):





1 apple and 1 orange are available.




But again, I would say




An apple and an orange are available.








These are both correct:




There is an apple and 2 oranges available.
There are 2 apples and an orange available




So it depends on the number of objects the is/are is referring to first.





2 apples and an orange are available.
An apples and 2 oranges are available.




When it is at the end, it refers to the total number of objects.


No comments:

Post a Comment