Question
Updated on
20 Oct 2021
- Japanese
-
English (US)
Question about English (US)
Which is natural ?
A:There are a lot of food.
B:There is a lot of food.
Which is natural ?
A:There are a lot of food.
B:There is a lot of food.
A:There are a lot of food.
B:There is a lot of food.
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- English (UK)
- English (US)
@Pekiko
You have to say – there is a lot of food.
You are talking about one single instance of something being real. How much food is there? One question about one event. You must use the singular form - is
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B: “There are” and “There is” is determined by the noun that follows it.
There is: singular
There are: plural
The word “food” is an exception to this rule because food is an uncountable noun: you can’t say “foods.” It’s like a category: there are many different kinds, so it becomes singular. In most instances we refer to it generally (as a whole).
Although “foods” can be said regarding the category itself. For example, “There are many foods at the fair.”
This is why we say “There is food” instead of “There are food.”
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@Pekiko No, say “There ARE a lot of fish.” Fish is referred to in a general sense: as in there’s an inexhaustible supply of fish (many fish/too many to be counted on our planet). This is why we call them “uncountable nouns.”
These plural forms obey the spelling rules attached to the language of origin. Languages like Latin.
“Fishes” can be used as a verb: “He fishes for money” OR a pluralization of “fish,” regarding the specific TYPE/SPECIES of fish.
I understand that this very tricky. I can’t imagine learning this if English wasn’t my native language. You’re doing great though! Keep it up!
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