There is a lot of, there are a lot of

There has already been a discussion about there is/are a lot of but the discussion has not reached the final conclusion which form is correct. Should we say: there is a lot of people or there are a lot of people?
Thank you

You can count people - three people, 20 people, 135 people, etc. so it is not a mass noun, like "sugar" or "anger."

Therefore, use "are": There are a lot of people.
(There is a lot of sugar in this pie. There is a lot of anger over this proposal.)

Barb_D said:

You can count people - three people, 20 people, 135 people, etc. so it is not a mass noun, like "sugar" or "anger."

Therefore, use "are": There are a lot of people.
(There is a lot of sugar in this pie. There is a lot of anger over this proposal.)

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Yes, but I think the difficulty is that there is only one 'lot', no matter how many people there are in it.
How about, "There is/are a houseful of people down the block who I don't like". (I'd say 'is')

For OP:
I say "There's a lot of people", but not "There is a lot of people." The contraction "there's" works for plurals.
Is your question purely about "a lot of ..."?
I would also say, "There is a roomful of people ...", so it depends on what X is in "There is/are an X of people."
I don't think there is a final conclusion.

Welcome to the forum, Parotka. :hi:

5jj said:

Welcome to the forum, Parotka. :hi:

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Oops. I missed that key point. Sorry!