Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Would you please tell me, as soon as possible, how you would agree the verb in the following sentences:

1) In front of him ARE / IS (?) the desk, the books, the homework...

2) In front of him ARE / IS (?) the desk, the book, the homework...

Thank you for being so understanding.

Hela

[CP]

I would use "are" for both sentences, since several things are in front of him. It doesn't matter (to me) whether each item in the list is singular or plural. What matters is that the list has more than a single item, so the plural form of the verb is needed.

Just my humble opinion. Maybe someone else has a different view.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[buddhaheart]

Although the order of the subject �the desk, the book(s), the homework ...� and the complement �in front of him� is inverted in your sentences, the verb must still agree with the subject. And since the subject is 3rd person and plural in #, �ARE� would be appropriate.

Let�s make this clearer: �The desk, the book(s), the homework... ARE in front of him.�

[hela]

Hello everyone,

So you would definitely disagree with the following?

there is / there are

In this example of there is, it is as if the items are being counted separately:
There�s a chair and there�s a table in the room SO there�s a chair and table in the room.

But note:
There are three chairs and a table in the room.
There�s a table and three chairs in the room.
The general rule is that the verb form matches the item(s) that it is adjacent to.

Best wishes

[CP]

I have seen that "general rule" before, and I don't agree.

Yes, people say, "There's a table and some chairs ...," but they also say, "There's some chairs and some tables ...." People are not always so careful with subject-verb agreement. But when speaking carefully, and when writing, the verb for both sentences should be the plural "are," not "is."

I can see the point of "There's a chair and a table" as ellipsis: The speaker is leaving out the second "there's" in saying, "There's a chair and there's a table." But that doesn't take care of "There's a table and some chairs," because what is left out is not parallel: "There's a table and there are some chairs."

In French and German they get around the problem with "il y a" and "es gibt," respectively, which mean both "there is" and "there are," but we aren't so lucky, so I think we should just accept it and be careful.

(My humble opinion. People may disagree.)
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[buddhaheart]

<<So you would definitely disagree with the following? >>

No, not at all. I couldn�t agree more with the general rule that we make the verb agree with the nearest subject.

<<There are three chairs and a table in the room. >>

There are three chairs and (there�s) a table in the room. We might look at this as a textual ellipsis as CP suggested.

<< There�s a table and three chairs in the room.>>

There�s a table and (there�re) three chairs in the room. (Same comment as above.)

<< There�s a chair and there�s a table in the room SO there�s a chair and table in the room. >>

I don�t believe we can look at the above as being absolutely right or wrong. There�re 2 ways to look at this.

I would firstly say �there�s a chair and there�s a table in the room SO there�RE a chair and a table in the room.� By this I meant to say collectively there�re 2 items (2 physically distinct elements) in the room and hence the plural is used.

There�s nothing wrong in applying the rule and say � There�s a chair and there�s a table in the room SO there�s a chair and table in the room."

Confusion can be avoided by carefully placing one's itemized subjects to agree with the verb or re-write a sentence to make the intent clear.

[hela]

Thank you all for your replies.

Kindest regards