{"id":222,"date":"2008-05-04T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2008-05-04T18:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/there-are-a-lot-of-cats-here\/"},"modified":"2008-10-26T12:34:14","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T18:34:14","slug":"there-are-a-lot-of-cats-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/05\/there-are-a-lot-of-cats-here\/","title":{"rendered":"“There are a lot of cats here.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I often hear sentences (mis)constructed in this way.<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong>
\nThere is a singular\/plural mismatch.<\/p>\n

Explanation:<\/strong>
\nThe phrase “a lot of cats” is singular, even though “cats” is plural, because “a lot” is singular.<\/p>\n

The “are” form of the verb “be” is plural.<\/p>\n

So there is a mismatch in number between “are” (plural) and “a lot of cats” (singular).<\/p>\n

Solutions:<\/strong>
\n“There is a lot of cats here.”
\nor
\n“There are lots of cats here.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I often hear sentences (mis)constructed in this way. Problem: There is a singular\/plural mismatch. Explanation: The phrase “a lot of cats” is singular, even though “cats” is plural, because “a lot” is singular. The “are” form of the verb “be” is plural. So there is a mismatch in number between “are” (plural) and “a lot…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15,12,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-common-english-blunders","category-nouns","category-number","category-plurals"],"yoast_head":"\n"There are a lot of cats here." - Kirk Mahoney . com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/05\/there-are-a-lot-of-cats-here\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""There are a lot of cats here." - Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I often hear sentences (mis)constructed in this way. 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