Timeline for "A variety of X is" vs. "a variety of X are"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 4, 2013 at 20:20 | history | edited | RegDwigнt | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 9 characters in body
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| Oct 12, 2011 at 11:09 | comment | added | Barrie England | Confirmed by ‘The Cambridge Guide to English Usage’, which adds ‘In grammatical terms, the difference is that ‘number´ is the head of the subject phrase in the first sentence, but a premodifying element in the second.’ | |
| Oct 12, 2011 at 11:02 | comment | added | Annarita Tranfici | You're right, and I found a more clear explanation for this particular case: When the word number itself is the subject it is a safe rule to treat it as singular when it has a definite article and as plural when it has an indefinite. So: "The number of people present was large", but "A large number of people were present". | |
| Oct 12, 2011 at 10:34 | comment | added | Irene | But we say 'A number of people have tried to find the answer'. The alternative 'A number of people has tried to find the answer' doesn't sound as natural, at least not according to Swan's Practical English Usage | |
| Oct 12, 2011 at 10:01 | history | answered | Annarita Tranfici | CC BY-SA 3.0 |