[Grammar] Usage of "More than one" phrase in a sentence

mharis05 · Mar 7, 2012

Hi,
I believe the question I'm about to frame might have been asked or discussed earlier, but I wanted to get a rather specific explanation, which is why I have posted here.

I needed to ask about the usage of phrase "More than one" in a sentence as in the following examples:

1a. He crafted more than one candle
1b. He crafted more than one candles
2a. More than one person was interested
2b. More than one persons were interested
3. More than one people are invited

It would be a great favour if I could an get explanation regarding the correct usage of (singular/plural) nouns and their auxiliary verbs in the above cases.

Thanks in Advance!
Haris

bhaisahab · Mar 7, 2012

mharis05 said:
Hi,
I believe the question I'm about to frame might have been asked or discussed earlier, but I wanted to get a rather specific explanation, which is why I have posted here.

I needed to ask about the usage of phrase "More than one" in a sentence as in the following examples:

1a. He crafted more than one candle
1b. He crafted more than one candles
2a. More than one person was interested
2b. More than one persons were interested
3. More than one people are invited

It would be a great favour if I could an get explanation regarding the correct usage of (singular/plural) nouns and their auxiliary verbs in the above cases.

Thanks in Advance!
Haris

Welcome to the forums, Haris. Which would you choose as being correct?

mharis05 · Mar 13, 2012

Thanks for the response, and sorry for my late reply

For the answers, I might choose 1a, 2a and maybe 3 is also correct, which I'm not sure about.

emsr2d2 · Mar 13, 2012

mharis05 said:
Thanks for the response, and sorry for my late reply

For the answers, I might choose 1a, 2a and maybe 3 is also correct, which I'm not sure about.

1a and 2a are indeed correct. 3 is not - if you look at 1b and 2b you will see that they contain plurals which is why they're incorrect. 3 should read "More than one person was invited".

TheParser · Mar 13, 2012

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

(1) I know how you feel. I am also a learner.

(2) "More than" certainly seems to indicate the plural, doesn't it!

(3) Here is something that I learned from the greatest grammarian ever (IMHO, of course):

"More than" is often felt as an adverb that means "not merely."

(a) So we should say:

More than one student has learned a lot at usingenglish.com. (Not merely one student has ....)

*****

He crafted not merely one candle (but he crafted a thousand).
Not merely one person is invited (but a thousand are invited).
Not merely one person was interested (but a thousand were interested).

Source: George Oliver Curme, A Grammar of the English Language, Vol. II (p. 59).

mharis05 · Apr 11, 2012

Thank you so much to everyone who posted

TheParser said:
"More than" is often felt as an adverb that means "not merely."

This is one of the rules that I shall always use to solve such problems, thanks!!

[Grammar] Usage of "More than one" phrase in a sentence

mharis05

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