alkaspeltzar
Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2006
- Member Type
- Other
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- United States
- Current Location
- United States
HI there , I am struggling to find what the subject of the sentence below:
"A lot of people are coming"
Obviously, 'people' are coming, and ' a lot' leads the phrase. But it seems more like 'a lot of" is describing people therefore 'people' is the subject.
I found this on Oxford Dictionary:
(lot itself does not normally function as a head noun, meaning that it does not itself determine whether the following verb is singular or plural. Thus, although lot is singular in a lot of people; , the verb that follows is not singular. In this case , the word people acts as the head noun and, being plural, ensures that the following verb is also plural: a lot of people were assembled
So would this mean people is the subject?
I would assume the same would be true for a sentence like;
"a small number of people are coming"......people again is the subject?
Thanks for the help
"A lot of people are coming"
Obviously, 'people' are coming, and ' a lot' leads the phrase. But it seems more like 'a lot of" is describing people therefore 'people' is the subject.
I found this on Oxford Dictionary:
(lot itself does not normally function as a head noun, meaning that it does not itself determine whether the following verb is singular or plural. Thus, although lot is singular in a lot of people; , the verb that follows is not singular. In this case , the word people acts as the head noun and, being plural, ensures that the following verb is also plural: a lot of people were assembled
So would this mean people is the subject?
I would assume the same would be true for a sentence like;
"a small number of people are coming"......people again is the subject?
Thanks for the help