[Grammar] is or are

[sane]

What will be appropriate in the following sentence--is or are?
There are (or is) a considerable number of people of Polish origin now living in Cleveland.

 

[2006]

What will be appropriate in the following sentence--is or are?
There are (or is) a considerable number of people of Polish origin now living in Cleveland.

'There are' is correct, because "a considerable number" is plural.

 

[Kondorosi]

'There are' is correct, because "a considerable number" is plural.

Let us be precise: this is not plural. The sense it conveys is plural. In 'a considerable number", the head of the noun-phrase is 'number', which is a singular noun. The plural is 'numbers'.

 

[2006]

Let us be precise: this is not plural. The sense it conveys is plural. In 'a considerable number", the head of the noun-phrase is 'number', which is a singular noun. The plural is 'numbers'.

"a considerable number" is plural in meaning, and fits with the plural noun "people".
Are you happier with this statement?

 

[fighting spirit]

Grammatically, is would be correct.
"A considerable number is ambiguous and leading in two directions, but it is not a plural form although it refers to group of people.
A as an indefinite article is used only for singular nouns. If we drop considerable, we have a number, which is a singular form.

Finally, There is a considerable number of people of Polish origin now living in Cleveland

 

[TheParser]

What will be appropriate in the following sentence--is or are?
There are (or is) a considerable number of people of Polish origin now living in Cleveland.

***NOT A TEACHER***(1) Many teachers suggest that you ignore the word "there" when analyzing. (2) Thus, we have: A considerable number of people of Polish origin are/is now living in Cleveland. (3) One popular grammar book followed by many American teachers gives this rule: A NUMBER OF = PLURAL; THE NUMBER OF = SINGULAR. (4) Thus, your sentence (which I have simplified for easier analysis) probably should read: A number of Polish people are now living in Cleveland. (There ARE a number of Polish people now. ...)

 

[sane]

Please continue the debate. I want to get more inputs from other people. It seems to me that both 'is' and 'are' should be correct here.
Thanks for your participation in the discussion.

 

[bhaisahab]

I would say that grammatically "is" and "are" are possible, but "is" doesn't sound right. I would go for "are".

 

[jayan12]

I am really confused :-?

 

[2006]

Grammatically, is would be correct. I don't agree.
"A considerable number is ambiguous It's not ambiguous at all; it means 'many'.
and leading in two directions, but it is not a plural form It obviously has a plural meaning . although it refers to group of people.
A as an indefinite article is used only for singular nouns. I don't agree. What about 'A dozen people are coming.'?

Would you say 'A dozen people is coming.'? I sure wouldn't.

If we drop considerable, we have a number, which is a singular form. But we are not talking about a number; we are talking about people.

"number" is singular in a sentence like 'A higher number is predicted.'

2006

 

[hope2010]

to me, the corect answer is:

There is a considerable number of people of Polish origin now living in Cleveland.

here the verb refers to the number. Though it denotes plural meaning' number of people' but the word 'number' is singular so would only agree with a singular verb which is 'is' in this case!

interesting reading the debate!

 

[fighting spirit]

"A considerable number is ambiguous It's not ambiguous at all; it means 'many'.

Of course I know what it means. I didn't want to say that the meaning was ambiguous. I was just referring to grammar, meaning that it could be very tricky.

After all, I must admit that I was mistaken. Sorry:-(
Is would be the correct answer.