Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[dhshim3]

1) There is more than one student in the room.
2) There are more than one student in the room.

I thought the subject of this sentence is plural - "more than one student"
so "There are" is grammatically correct. But pragmatical usage seems different.

Anyone who can help me?
I don't logically understand why sentence(2) is correct.

[redset]

Sentence 2 is incorrect, that's what you meant right?

Basically the verb agrees with the actual noun, which in this case is singular (student) - so we say 'there is more than one student'. I know what you mean, when we say 'more than one' the result is obviously going to be plural, but the noun itself is still singular in the sentence so the verb has to match it.

[dhshim3]

I appreciate it.