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Ask for help > Looking for best way of explaining the difference
Looking for best way of explaining the difference
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roneydirt
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Looking for best way of explaining the difference
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Was asked this so looking for a better way of explaining the difference.
1) There was some words misspelled in other areas.
2) There were some words misspelled in other areas.
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6 Jan 2011
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memthefirst
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Words can be counted.
Example:Teacher! I have encountered 3 unknown words in the reading text.
If we couldn �t count words,we would have to talk about the quantity of a single "word".Do we say "I have a little word" ?No we don �t.
We could say " This sentence is composed of five words." or "How many words are there in this sentence?"
If we couldn �t count "word" we would have to use "How much" instead of "How many"
When we say "How much word knowledge have you got in English?" we ask the quantity of "knowledge" which can not be counted,but we don �t ask the quantity or number of the words.
2) There were some words misspelled in other areas. (This sentence is correct otherwise you wouldn �t pluralise "word" and you wouldn �t use "some")
I would explain the difference like this to my students.(sorry for the complexity)
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6 Jan 2011
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almaz
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Well, you would think: �singular verb should be followed by
a singular noun and plural by plural�. But, as any native speaker knows, the
�there is/was�� construction often
comes out first anyway whether you
follow it with a singular noun or not. And there are many perfectly valid reasons for this happening. According to Merriam-Webster, this �invariable singular occurs mostly in the
colloquial style � speech and speechlike prose � and is generally avoided in
the literary style�� and that ��you are best guided by your own sense of what
sounds right in the particular context to avoid awkwardness��. It also gives examples where the likes
of Shakespeare, Lamb and Defoe (and even Harry S Truman!) used this invariable
singular with a plural subject in their prose.
So, you could say that the first is what you might have said
and the second what you would most likely have written.
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6 Jan 2011
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libertybelle
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Not sure of the Webster explanation - but
in my opinion number two is correct because some means a few which is plural and therefore you would use were.
1) There was some words misspelled in other areas.
2) There were some words misspelled in other areas.
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6 Jan 2011
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douglas
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In California we say "There were some misspelled words."
In Georgia they say "There was some misspelled words." 
There were is "proper" English, there was is "casual"(colloquial) English--I would teach them that "there were" is the only correct way, but they will hear the other sometimes. |
6 Jan 2011
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almaz
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I �m not sure of what you �re not sure of, LB, but it �s here if you want to check it. Michael Swann (Practical English Usage) tends to agree that �there is is also common before plural subjects in informal speech � although �some people consider this incorrect � (my emphasis). In neither work does it actually say that the construction is incorrect. Then again, your �opinion � may be exactly what Bill was looking for. |
6 Jan 2011
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zailda
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According to the grammar "there was" matches with singular countable nouns and uncontable nouns whereas "there were" matches with plural (contable, of course) nouns.
"words" is a countable noun stated in the plural in the sentence, so if we follow the grammar, the standard form is:
2) There were some words misspelled in other areas.
The first sentence - even if sounds natural for natives or is used informally - is grammatically incorrect. In standard English it �s not acceptable.
It �s correct to say:
There was some information missing. (information is an uncountable noun in English).
There was only one word misspelled. (a countable noun expressed in singular).
But: There were some words misspelled in other areas.
Hope it helps. |
7 Jan 2011
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