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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > There is lots of tourists??
There is lots of tourists??
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libertybelle
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Languages change with use.
We say in the USA:
There �s lots of tourists
There are a lot of tourists
There are lots of tourists.
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16 Jan 2014
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mjpa
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Just because someone says something, does not mean it is correct. Does it? |
16 Jan 2014
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Peter Hardy
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As said above, native speakers make mistakes too. The English may have given the world the idea they are superior, but they �re certainly not perfect. Neither in books or in speech. (No pun intended.)
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16 Jan 2014
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sdtykl
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As a teacher I had difficulty explaining the situation. I �m for the idea that we needn �t be too strict with those "holy" grammar rules, especially while speaking. However, when it comes to classroom language, such a mistake is not tolerable. By the way, thanks for all the comments.. |
16 Jan 2014
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libertybelle
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Mjpa
You wrote:
Just because someone says something, does not mean it is correct. Does it?
No it doesn �t mean it is correct - but language get corrupted and changed along the way. That is probably why English has become such a non-phonetic language (speech vs. written English) but that is also the case with many languages.
When not a few, but millions of people say: There �s a lot of tourists - it becomes an accepted form of speech.
Sometimes the rules have to change with the evolution of language.
Compared to other languages, the grammatical rules of English are hardly ever adapted or changed to fit the times.
I wonder, if way back when, thousands of years ago, there were any irregular verbs at all?
Perhaps those irregular verbs emerged because people were saying them wrong, just as in your example above, and instead of changing the rules, they just added them to the list of irregularities.
This form of patching up and accepting incorrect language just might result in regular verbs becoming the exception to the rule instead of all the irregularities.
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16 Jan 2014
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Peter Hardy
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Nice point, Libertybelle. Just remember, a thousand years ago there was no such thing as an English language. And modern English is still a rubbish language, meaning it �s made up of more than a dozen other languages. Hence the many grammar rules, and even more exceptions. Next, the English are very fond of traditions so they won �t change anything that easily . (Again, no offence intended.) So I always tell my students that it �s more important to be understood, than to be grammatically correct. Kisses: keep it simple, silly english speakers.  |
16 Jan 2014
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almaz
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Firstly, can we get rid of this bit of nonsense that native English speakers somehow can �t speak their own language. I really am getting sick of the stupid convention here that usually goes along the lines of:
- "Native speakers often make grammatical mistakes in English" - "This word/expression which I and my friends and colleagues, as native English speakers, use all the time, is not �good � English" - "Non-native X �s English is of a much higher standard than most native English speakers I know"
Attitudes like these simply show insecurity and lack of confidence in one �s own language (thank you, generations of pompous, unimaginative English teachers) and an ignorance of what constitutes a living language (being unable, for example, to tell the difference between formal and informal, standard and non-standard, or being willfully prejudiced when it comes to register, language change, social and regional variation etc).
As to the matter of there is/there �s, here �s the respected linguist Arnold Zwicky on the subject:
"there is" + [plural noun phrase] is
indeed nonstandard (and somewhat more common in the south and south midlands (of the USA) than elsewhere, I believe ...) , but "there�s" + [plural noun phrase] should really be characterized, in current English, as merely
informal/colloquial, rather than nonstandard. Millions of people (like me) who
wouldn �t use "there is two people at the door" are entirely happy
with "there �s two people at the door". So the two versions differ not
only in emphasis and/or formality, but also (for many of us) in standardness.
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17 Jan 2014
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mjpa
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Libertybelle, I understand your point of view. But, modestly, i don�t think you or me are the right ones to change a language. In Spain at least, there is an academy of language which decides, when they think so, that so many people are saying something that it should be considered correct or valid. And from them onwards that is correct. But not before even though thousand of people say it. |
17 Jan 2014
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Bye, bye you silly word!
Have a nice weekend, dear friends.