Howdy word nerds,
I've been hearing myself say "There is" in sentences where maybe "There are" would be more grammatically correct. For example, "There's a beer and a carrot in the fridge." Is it more correct to say "There are a beer and a carrot in the fridge."? It just feels clumsy. Has "There is.." become acceptable in this kind of case?
Thanks bunches
N
I have noticed this phenomenon a good deal in others, on TV, and in my own speaking. I notice this both with American and British speakers. Personally, I find it difficult even to notice it, especially when it is contracted to there's. I never correct others, but when I catch myself, I correct the number of the verb.
Examples can be even more glaring than with a conjunction:
There's four ways to do this.
There's loads of reasons why we should.
There's countless stars in the sky.
At least in casual speech (where you're most likely to encounter beer and carrots) I think it's reasonable to assume an unspoken "there's" before the carrot, so I'd let it ride. To the best of my knowledge I always make the verb agree with the noun number in cases like Glenn's examples, though my wife might dispute that. I tend to be conscious of such stuff.
Peter
I would think we have two issues here. One is verb number agreement and the other is contraction.
On the first point, I think 'the there construction' is the problem. So much of english has the noun first and we know what the verb number should be when we get to it, but "there" does not number the verb. Therefore, we must choose and speak the verb (and its number implicitly) before we get to the noun. If we are lazy or not thinking ahead, it is easy to get the verb wrong since we have not heard how many it should be. In fact, "there" does not give a clue; the same 'leading word' is the same whether the verb is plural or singular. So many other examples exist where the word in front of the verb changes in conjunction with the verb: "she says", "they say", etc.
On the second issue, I believe that the contraction of "there are" is unused/untenable. That is, we have: there, their, and they're which are confusing enough. But, what could be the contraction of "there are"? "There're" or "ther're"? I don't think so. Therefore, I think the only viable contraction contains the singular verb.
My two cents.
Emmett
Hey, thanks for your input, interesting stuff.
Emmett, that's interesting waht you say about contracting there and are. In writing I would never do that, but I'm pretty sure I have when speaking – kind of sounds like "there" followed by a pirate sound, all very quickly mashed together, as we do in speech. Thererr? It helps that I pronounce "there" with a Boston-ish accent, so the contrast is greater.
Because I recently started teaching English to non-native speakers, I think a lot about how to explain the official rules *and* warn people about what they will hear lots of native speakers say, including myself. Outside the classroom I generally don't bother to match the verb and the number in a sentence starting with "there", and let it ride, as you do Peter (even if I consider beer and carrots to be a more formal topic). -wink-
Those are perfect examples, Glenn. I'm wondering if "There's" is on its way to just becoming acceptable, at least in spoken English…