Hello, my dear friends! Welcome to Series English!
My name is Antonia Romaker
and today we are going to talk about a very common mistake
made by English learners.
So we are going to talk about one issue, which confuses a lot of people
and it is going to be connected with the phrases 'a lot of' and 'lots of'.
So many people are not sure what verbs to use with these - plural or singular.
Before we talk about this mistake let's very quickly discuss the basic information.
So 'a lot of' and 'lots of' mean much and many,
However 'much' is used only with uncountable singular nouns,
and 'many' is used only with countable plural nouns,
while these phrases - 'a lot of' and 'lots of' can be used with both.
So we can say 'a lot of sugar' and we can say 'a lot of people',
'a lot of things', 'a lot of rules' and so on. So with both:
uncountable singular, like 'sugar', 'milk', 'laughter' and so on
and countable plural, like 'things', 'people', 'flowers', 'lessons',
'rules' and many-many other things.
So 'lots of' and 'a lot of' can be used with both,
however, what we need to memorize here is
that when we use 'a lot of' or 'lots of' with countable plural
then the verb connected with this phrase should be plural.
Like 'there are a lot of people', 'there are a lot of rules in the English grammar!'
And it is frustrating sometimes.
However here everything is more or less logical,
our job is just to focus on the noun,
not on the phrase 'a lot of' or 'lots of', but on the noun.
'A lot of people', 'people' is plural, that's why the verb should be plural.
'A lot of sugar', 'sugar' is singular, that's why the verb should be singular.
'There is a lot of sugar... in this girl.' Joking!
Anyway, this is what we need to memorize. So do not make this mistake
by putting a singular verb with 'a lot of' and a plural verb with 'lots of'.
Because 'a lot of'... 'a lot' seems to be like a singular noun.
So we should not pay attention to the phrase,
we should pay attention to the noun following these phrases, OK?
Now let's take a look at a couple of more examples.
She's got lots of dresses.
But she doesn't have anything to wear every day.
Guess it's true about a lot of women... me too...
Do you dream about winning a lot of money?
Stop dreaming, start doing - start working.
I'm always late. Timing is not my strongest suit.
To tell you the truth, I keep thinking that there's still a lot of time.
By the way, notice here that we say 'there is still a lot of time.'
'Time' is singular, that's why we say 'there is a lot of time'.
If we say 'there are a lot of people at the party',
then we say 'there are', as 'people' is plural.
There are a lot of friends around this person,
because he is very kind and sweet... for example.
So noun, focus on the noun.
Were there a lot of people at the party?
'Were there...', 'were' is plural.
Or we can say that 'A lot of people like this new film 'Fifty Shades of Grey'.'
It's very popular.
BTW 'a lot' can be used alone, for example, when we answer a question like this:
Were there a lot of people at the party? - A lot.
Or 'how many people were there at the party?', we can say: 'A lot.'
And when we use 'a lot and 'lots' alone,
we skip the preposition 'of', because we do not have a noun after the phrase,
so we do not need the preposition, we simply say: 'a lot' or 'lots'.
'Lot's of people' or shortly 'lots'.
Now there's also the phrase 'plenty', 'plenty of'.
It means 'enough' or 'more than enough', so it's close in meaning.
There were plenty of people at the party.
The rule is the same, so 'plenty of'.
Now I need to say that all these phrases -
'a lot of', 'lots of' and 'plenty of' - are informal,
so they are quite colloquial.
'Lots of' is even more colloquial and informal than 'a lot of'.
They are used in speaking, communicating, some chatting around.
However if you want to write a scientific article or an official letter or something
you need to use some other phrases. So you can use 'much' and 'many' of course,
or you can use the phrases 'a great deal of' or 'a good deal of'
for uncountable singular,
and 'a large number of' for countable plural.
So you can substitute 'a lot of', 'lots of' and 'plenty of'
by these wonderful formal phases.
There were a large number of people at the party.
OK, that's basically it. So the main information
which you need to memorize is
that 'a lot of' and 'lots of', 'plenty of', so all these phrases
are used with plural verbs, when you use them in connection with plural nouns.
And they are used with singular verbs,
when these phrases are connected with singular nouns.
So focus on the nouns, when you use choose the form of the verb - singular or plural.
So that's it, I hope that you found this class useful.
And after it you are going to have a short exercise
to practice, to memorize this rule better.
But that's it, I hope to see you soon!
Happy English and Russian practice! Bye-bye!
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See you later, guys! Bye!