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RSSIs “Number” Singular or Plural?
Tony writes:
In one of my posts, I found I had written “There is a significant number of sources…”. When reading it back to myself, I kept wanting to change the “is” to “are”, but I think the way I have it is actually more grammatically correct, even though it sounds odd to my ears. Am I right in thinking that I wrote it correctly the first time?
The noun number by itself is singular:
The number on his jersey is 88.
The number of unemployed has risen.
However, the phrase a number of calls for a plural verb:
A number of protesters were arrested.
There are a significant number of sources.
Tony’s experience is an example of what linguist Noam Chomsky meant when he argued that
the intuition of a native speaker is enough to define the grammaticalness of a sentence; that is, if a particular string of English words elicits a double take, or feeling of wrongness in a native English speaker, it can be said that the string of words is ungrammatical (when various extraneous factors affecting intuitions are controlled for).
Obviously among the “various extraneous factors” must be included sufficient exposure to standard English usage in speech and writing.
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thanks a lot…this is help me problem solve
However, the verb should be agreeing with “number” since “of sources” is a prepositional phrase and therefore not the subject of the verb “is”. (Did I do my quotation marks correctly?) Yes?
“Obviously among the ‘various extraneous factors’ must be included sufficient exposure to standard English usage in speech and writing.”
Having read only the brief snippet from Noam Chomsky you included above, I think it is a bit of a leap from “native English speaker” to “native English speaker with sufficient exposure to standard English”. It seems the point is more that “grammaticalness” is a function of the set of native English speakers however they identify themselves. I don’t think most people in that set would exclude themselves for not having sufficient exposure to standard English.
hi Maeve,
Didn’t know this, always though ‘number’ was singular.
Learn something new every day. Thanks
A confusion regarding the same was always in my mind also, but now cleared. Thanks for the post!!!
This is from an English teacher in Argentina:
It’s the idea of “countable” vs. “uncoutable” nouns.
If you can “count” something, like bottles, or books or a number of people. Countable nouns become plural when there’s more than one item.
“Uncountable” nouns are things that you can’s count. Like sky, pride, thunder or sugar (unless you put them into countable quantities, such as a “packet of sugar”).
So, since you can count a significant number of sources, it has to be plural.
My take on this:
“A number of . . .” follows the same guidelines as “all of . . . .”
“All of . . .” is plural or singular based on the object of the preposition. Singular object = singular verb. Plural object = plural verb.
Because the object of the preposition for “a number of” will always be plural, we need the plural form of the verb.
“All of the CHANGE IS lost.”
“All of the MEN ARE present”
“A number of MEN ARE present.”
But . . .
“The number of men present is six.”
PreciseEdit,
Thanks for this useful addendum.
I often hear people say Stuffs. But one of my teachers told me, there’s no “s” in stuff.. it’s plural already. So which one is true.. stuffs or stuff
k_anish: Your teacher is correct. “Stuffs” (used as a noun) is not a word.
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Further explanation on whether “number” takes a plural or singular verb:
“The number of” is a singular collective noun and requires a singular verb.
“The number of unemployed U.S. workers is steadily increasing.”
“A number of,” on the other hand, is a plural form and therefore takes the plural verb form.
“A number of unemployed U.S. workers are beginning to feel the crunch.”
Note: I’m adding this to reinforce the rule for myself as well as for other readers.
My son is driving me crazy!!!! He consistently says ” I need to do a few stuff. ” I reply that he should properly say ” I need to do a few things ” or ” I need to do some stuff “. I know my options are fine, but my question is whether his version is also proper. Please help us !!
Hi,
Could anyone help me in this:
“What was the cause of all this? Was it the fire? Was it the water baloons?”
Is it correct to say “was it the water baloons”?