"There is a lot of" vs "There are a lot of" - English Lessons Brighton

“There is a lot of” vs “There are a lot of”

by Phil Williams | Jun 14, 2018 | Definitions, Grammar | 50 comments

Do we say “There is a lot…” or “There are a lot of…”?

This question was put to me recently by a student who noted that “lot” is the first noun after a
verb. In theory, the verb should be singular with “a lot of”, because it is a singular “lot”.
Comparing “There are a lot of apples.” and “There is a lot of apples.”, to many people this sounds
incorrect, however. Why?

When should “to be” agree with the first

noun?
With a sentence covering states, the noun typically agrees with the first noun, such as There is a
car. or They are rocks. The verb “to be” describes the noun, and therefore agrees with whether
the noun is singular or plural. This can become confusing, however, when “to be” describes a
singular noun that groups a plural: nouns such as couple, pair, group, and crowd may all be
followed by plurals, but are treated, grammatically, as singular, as they represent one single unit.
Consider that “a couple of people” is one object (a couple), because it combines two separate
objects (two people) into one unit. Similarly, “a group of doctors”, “a crowd of onlookers”, “a
swarm of bees”. The opposite would be true if we defined a group by a plural number or an
 adverb expressing a plural: “many chairs” and “twelve nurses”, for example, express plurals that
are not grouped into one unit.
Usually, the first noun defines the quantity (and tells us “how many”), and with sentences
describing states the verb “to be” will agree with the first noun.
 There is a group of librarians waiting for you.
 There are hundreds of clowns coming.
This can be true of “a lot”; if we strictly want to refer to lot as a singular grouping, then the singular
“is a lot” is appropriate. It’s been mentioned in the comments below that this is the “correct”
usage, but bear in mind data shows roughly half of English speakers are likely to say “are a lot”,
and this a pattern that appears in grammar books – so we must question how the language is
actually used rather than how the basic rules say it should be used.

Why doesn’t this work for “There are a lot of /

There is a lot”?
The ambiguity here comes from “a lot of” appearing to be a noun phrase when it’s actually not
used in the same way. When people say “are a lot”, this is used not as a grouping noun but like a
quantifying adjective, like “many”. While a singular verb is appropriate with nouns that define the
plural into a singular group, “a lot of” refers to a quantity rather than a grouped unit – modifying
the noun as “many” would. So the verb agrees with the noun that “a lot of” qualifies, rather than “a
lot”. We can therefore have either “are a lot of” or “is a lot of” depending on our interpretation of
this sentence. Mostly, we will use “There are a lot of” with countable nouns, when we discuss
plurals, and “There is a lot of” with uncountable nouns, but there is of course flexibility here – in
many cases it may be down to the individual’s interpretation of the sentence.
 There are a lot of apples.
 There is a lot of meat.
It’s deceptive, but a good example of how exceptions to some of the simple rules of English can
work – because words can be used for functions that are not what they immediately appear to be.